UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


3  182201957  9911 


TH6 


DRY  HG 

BATTLE  HY/AN 
R6PUBUC 


Ualifornia 

Jgional 

cility 


LIBRARY    ] 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO      ] 


JNIVERSITY  OF  CALFORN  A  SAN     IEGO 


31822019579911 


p,ease  Note:  This 

Date  Due 


Cl  39  (2/95) 


UCSD  Lto. 


From  her  last  photograph,  taken  at  Smith  College  a  fortnight  before  her  death 


THE  STORY  OF 
THE  BATTLE  HYMN 
OF  THE  REPUBLIC 


BY 


FLORENCE  HOWE  HALL 

DAUGHTER  OF  JULIA  WARD  HOWE 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS 

NEW    YORK     AND     LONDON 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

Copyright,   1916,  by  Harper  &  Brothers 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

Published  October,  1916 

K-Q 


ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

The  author  wishes  to  express  her  cordial  thanks 
to  Messrs.  Houghton  &  Mifflin  for  their  courtesy 
in  allowing  her  to  quote  a  number  of  passages  from 
the  Reminiscences  of  Julia  Ward  Howe  (published 
by  them  in  1899)  and  several  from  Julia  Ward 
Howe  (published  by  them  in  1916). 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  THE   ANTI-SLAVERY   PRELUDE   TO   THE   GREAT 

TRAGEDY  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR 3 

II.  THE  CRIME  AGAINST  KANSAS 21 

III.  MRS.  HOWE  VISITS  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC  38 

IV.  "THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC"     .     .  49 

V.  THE  ARMY  TAKES  IT  UP 64 

VI.  NOTABLE  OCCASIONS  WHERE  IT  HAS  BEEN  SUNG  73 

VII.  How  AND  WHERE  THE  AUTHOR  RECITED  IT   .     .  88 

VIII.  TRIBUTES  TO  "THE  BATTLE  HYMN"    ....  96 

IX.  MRS.  HOWE'S  LESSER  POEMS  OF  THE  CIVIL  WAR  107 

X.  MRS.  HOWE'S  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM  AN  INHERITANCE  121 


THE  BATTLE  HYMN   OF  THE 
REPUBLIC 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the 

Lord: 
He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage  where  the  grapes  of 

wrath  are  stored; 
He  hath  loosed  the  fateful  lightning  of  his  terrible 

swift  sword: 

His  truth  is  marching  on. 

I  have  seen  Him  in  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred 

circling  camps; 
They  have  builded  Him  an  altar  in  the  evening  dews 

and  damps; 
I  can  read  His  righteous  sentence  by  the  dim  and 

flaring  lamps. 

His  day  is  marching  on. 

I  have  read  a  fiery  gospel,  writ  in  burnished  rows  of 

steel: 
"As  ye  deal  with  my  contemners,  so  with  you  my 

grace  shall  deal; 

Let  the  Hero,  born  of  woman,  crush  the  serpent  with 
his  heel, 

Since  God  is  marching  on," 
I 


He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never 
call  retreat; 

He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  His  judg- 
ment-seat: 

Oh!  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him!  be  jubilant, 
my  feet! 

Our  God  is  marching  on. 

In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born  across  the 

sea, 
With  a  glory  in  his  bosom  that  transfigures  you 

and  me: 
As  he  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make 

men  free, 

While  God  is  marching  on. 


THE  STORY  OF 
THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF 
THE  REPUBLIC" 


THE   ANTI-SLAVERY    PRELUDE    TO    THE    GREAT 
TRAGEDY   OF  THE   CIVIL  WAR 

The  encroachments  of  the  slave  power  on  Northern  soil — Green 
Peace,  the  home  of  Julia  Ward  Howe,  a  center  of  anti-slavery 
activity — She  assists  her  husband,  Dr.  Samuel  Gridley  Howe, 
in  editing  the  Commonwealth — He  is  made  chairman  of  the 
Vigilance  Committee — Slave  concealed  at  Green  Peace — Charles 
Sumner  is  struck  down  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

THE  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  "the 
crimson  flower  of  battle,"  bloomed  in  a 
single  night.  It  sprang  from  the  very  soil  of  the 
conflict,  in  the  midst  of  the  Civil  War.  Yet  the 
plant  which  produced  it  was  of  slow  growth,  with 
roots  reaching  far  back  into  the  past. 

In  order  to  understand  how  this  song  of  our 

3 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

nation  sprang  into  sudden  being  we  must  study 
that  stormy  past — the  prelude  of  the  Civil  War. 
How  greatly  it  affected  my  mother  we  shall  see 
from  her  own  record,  as  well  as  from  the  story  of 
the  events  that  touched  her  so  nearly.  My  own 
memory  of  them  dates  back  to  childhood's  days. 
Yet  they  moved  and  stirred  my  soul  as  few  things 
have  done  in  a  long  life. 

Therefore  I  have  striven  to  give  to  the  present 
generation  some  idea  of  the  fervor  and  ferment, 
the  exaltation  of  spirit,  that  prevailed  at  that 
epoch  among  the  soldiers  of  a  great  cause,  es- 
pecially as  I  saw  it  in  our  household. 


Let  the  Hero,  born  of  woman,  crush  the  serpent  with  his  heel. 

So  many  years  have  elapsed  since  the  evil 
monster  of  slavery  was  done  to  death  that  we 
sometimes  forget  its  awful  power  in  the  middle 
of  the  last  century.  The  fathers  of  the  Republic 
believed  that  it  would  soon  perish.  They  forbade 
its  entrance  into  the  Territories  and  were  careful 
to  make  no  mention  of  it  in  the  Constitution. 

The  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  changed  the 
whole  situation.  It  was  found  that  slave  labor 
could  be  used  with  profit  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
cotton  crop.  But  slave  labor  with  its  wasteful 

4 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

methods  exhausted  the  soil.  Slavery  could  only 
be  made  profitable  by  constantly  increasing  its 
area.  Hence,  the  Southern  leaders  departed  from 
the  policy  of  the  fathers  of  the  Republic.  Instead 
of  allowing  slavery  to  die  out,  they  determined  to 
make  it  perpetual.  Instead  of  keeping  it  within 
the  limits  prescribed  by  the  ancient  law  of  the 
land,  they  resolved  to  extend  it. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  gave  the  first 
extension  of  slavery,  opening  the  great  Territory  of 
Missouri  to  the  embrace  of  the  serpent.  The  fugi- 
tive-slave law  was  signed  in  1850.  Before  this  time 
the  return  of  runaway  negroes  had  been  an  un- 
certain obligation.  The  new  law  took  away  from 
State  magistrates  the  decision  in  cases  of  this  sort 
and  gave  it  to  United  States  Commissioners.  It 
imposed  penalties  on  rescues  and  denied  a  jury 
trial  to  black  men  arrested  as  fugitives,  thus 
greatly  endangering  the  liberties  of  free  negroes. 
The  Dred  Scott  decision  (see  page  10),  deny- 
ing that  negroes  could  be  citizens,  was  made  in 
1854.  In  1856  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  re- 
pealed by  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  law.1  Ad- 

1  Abraham  Lincoln  said  of  this  law:  "I  look  upon  that  enactment 
not  as  a  law,  but  as  a  violence  from  the  beginning.  It  was  conceived 
in  violence  and  is  being  executed  in  violence"  (letter  to  Joshua  F. 
Speed,  August  24,  1855). 

5 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

ditional  territory  was  thrown  open  to  the  sinister 
institution  which  now  threatened  to  become  like 
the  great  Midgard  snake,  holding  our  country  in 
its  suffocating  embrace,  as  that  creature  of  fable 
surrounded  the  earth.  It  was  necessary  to  fling 
off  the  deadly  coils  of  slavery  if  we  were  to  endure 
as  a  free  nation. 

The  first  step  was  to  arouse  the  sleeping  con- 
science of  the  people.  For  the  South  was  not 
alone  in  wishing  there  should  be  no  interference 
with  their  "peculiar  institution."  The  North  was 
long  supine  and  dreaded  any  new  movement 
that  might  interfere  with  trade  and  national 
prosperity.  I  can  well  remember  my  father's 
pointing  this  out  to  his  children,  and  inveighing 
against  the  selfishness  of  the  merchants  as  a  class. 
Alas!  it  was  a  Northern  man,  Stephen  A.  Douglas, 
who  was  the  father  of  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska 
bill. 

"The  trumpet  note  of  Garrison"  had  sounded, 
some  years  before  this  time,  the  first  note  of  anti- 
slavery  protest.  But  the  Garrisonian  abolitionists 
did  not  seek  to  carry  the  question  into  politics. 
Indeed,  they  held  it  to  be  wrong  to  vote  under  the 
Federal  Constitution,  "A  league  with  death  and 
a  covenant  with  hell,"  as  they  called  it.  Whit- 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

tier,  the  Quaker  poet,  took  a  more  practical  view 
than  his  fellow-abolitionists  and  advocated  the  use 
of  the  ballot-box 

When  the  encroachments  of  the  slave  power 
began  to  threaten  seriously  free  institutions 
throughout  the  country,  thinking  men  at  the 
North  saw  that  the  time  for  political  action  had 
come.  There  were  several  early  organizations 
which  preceded  the  formation  of  the  Republican 
party — the  Liberty  party,  Conscience  Whigs,  Free- 
soilers,  as  they  were  called.  My  father  belonged 
to  the  two  latter,  and  I  can  well  remember  that 
my  elder  sister  and  I  were  nicknamed  at  school, 
"Little  Free-Dirters." 

The  election  of  Charles  Sumner  to  the  United 
States  Senate  was  an  important  victory  for  the 
anti-slavery  men.  Dr.  Howe,  as  his  most  intimate 
friend,  worked  hard  to  secure  it.  Yet  we  see  by 
my  father's  letters  that  he  groaned  in  spirit  at 
the  necessity  of  the  political  dickering  which  he 
hated. 

Women  in  those  days  neither  spoke  in  public 
nor  took  part  in  political  affairs.  But  it  may  be 
guessed  that  my  mother  was  deeply  interested  in 
all  that  was  going  on  hi  the  world  of  affairs,  and 
under  her  own  roof,  too,  for  our  house  at  South 

7 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Boston  became  one  of  the  centers  of  activity  of 
the  anti-slavery  agitation. 

My  father  (who  was  some  seventeen  years 
older  than  his  wife)  well  understood  the  power  of 
the  press.  He  had  employed  it  to  good  effect  in  his 
work  for  the  blind,  the  insane,  and  others.  Hence 
he  became  actively  interested  in  the  management 
of  the  Commonwealth,  an  anti-slavery  newspaper, 
and  with  my  mother's  help  edited  it  for  an  entire 
winter.  They  began  work  together  every  morn- 
ing, he  preparing  the  political  articles,  and  she 
the  literary  ones.  Burning  words  were  sent  forth 
from  the  quiet  precincts  of  "Green  Peace."  My 
mother  had  thus  named  the  homestead,  lying  in 
its  lovely  garden,  when  she  came  there  early  in 
her  married  life.  Little  did  she  then  dream  that 
the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  would  dis- 
turb its  serene  repose  some  ten  years  later. 

The  agitation  had  not  yet  become  so  strong  as 
greatly  to  affect  the  children  of  the  household. 
We  played  about  the  garden  as  usual  and  knew  lit- 
tle of  the  Commonwealth  undertaking,  save  as  it 
brought  some  delightful  juveniles  to  the  editorial 
sanctum.  The  little  Howes  highly  approved  of 
this  by-product  of  journalism! 

Our  mother's  pen  had  been  used  before  this  time 

8 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

to  help  the  cause  of  the  slave.  As  early  as  1848 
she  contributed  a  poem  to  The  Liberty  Bell,  an 
annual  edited  by  Mrs.  Maria  Norton  Chapman 
and  sold  at  the  anti-slavery  bazars.  "In  my 
first  published  volume,  Passion  Flowers,  appeared 
some  lines  'On  the  Death  of  the  Slave  Lewis,' 
which  were  wrung  from  my  indignant  heart  by  a 
story — alas!  too  common  in  those  days — of  mur- 
derous outrage  committed  by  a  master  against  his 
human  chattel"  (Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
Struggle,  Julia  Ward  Howe). 

Another  method  of  arousing  the  conscience  of 
the  nation  was  through  the  public  platform.  My 
father  and  his  friends  were  anxious  to  present  the 
great  question  in  a  perfectly  fair  way.  So  a  series 
of  lectures  was  given  in  Tremont  Temple,  where 
the  speakers  were  alternately  the  most  prominent 
advocates  of  slavery  at  the  South  and  its  most 
strenuous  opponents  at  the  North.  Senator 
Toombs,  of  Georgia,  and  General  Houston,  of 
Texas,  were  among  the  former. 

It  was,  probably,  at  this  lecture  course  that  my 
father  exercised  his  office  as  chairman  in  an  un- 
usual way.  In  those  days  it  was  the  custom  to 
open  the  meeting  with  prayer,  and  some  of  the 
contemporary  clergymen  were  very  long-winded. 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Dr.  Howe  informed  each  reverend  gentleman  be- 
forehand that  at  the  end  of  five  minutes  he  should 
pull  the  latter's  coat-tail.  The  divines  were  in 
such  dread  of  this  gentle  admonition  that  they  in- 
variably wound  up  the  prayer  within  the  allotted 
time. 

At  this  time  no  criticism  of  the  "peculiar  insti- 
tution" was  allowed  at  the  South.  Northerners 
traveling  there  were  often  asked  for  their  opinion  of 
it,  but  any  unfavorable  comment  evoked  dis- 
pleasure. Indeed,  a  friend  of  ours,  a  Northern 
woman  teaching  in  Louisiana,  was  called  to  book 
because  in  his  presence  she  spoke  of  one  of  the 
slaves  as  a  "man."  A  negro,  she  was  informed, 
was  not  a  man,  and  must  never  be  so  called.  "Boy" 
was  the  proper  term  to  use.  This  was  a  logical 
inference  from  Judge  Taney's  famous  Dred  Scott 
decision — viz.,  that  "such  persons,"  i.  e.,  negroes, 
"were  not  included  among  the  people"  in  the 
words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
could  not  in  any  respect  be  considered  as  citizens. 
Yet,  to  quote  Abraham  Lincoln  again,  "Judge 
Curtis,  in  his  dissenting  opinion,  shows  that  in  five 
of  the  then  thirteen  States — to  wit,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 

North  Carolina — free  negroes  were  voters,  and  in 

10 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

proportion  to  their  numbers  had  the  same  part  in 
making  the  Constitution  that  the  white  people 
had." 

Events  now  began  to  move  with  ever-increasing 
rapidity.  The  scenes  of  the  stirring  prelude  to  the 
Civil  War  grew  ever  more  stormy.  Men  became 
more  and  more  wrought  up  as  the  relentless 
purpose  of  the  Southern  leaders  was  gradually 
revealed.  The  deadly  serpent  of  slavery  became 
a  hydra-headed  monster,  striking  north,  east,  and 
west.  The  hunting  of  fugitive  slaves  took  on  a 
sinister  activity  in  the  Northern  "border"  States; 
at  the  national  capital  the  attempts  to  muzzle  free 
speech  culminated  in  the  striking  down  of  Charles 
Sumner  in  the  Senate  Chamber  itself;  in  Kansas 
the  "border  ruffians"  strove  to  inaugurate  a 
reign  of  terror,  and  succeeded  in  bringing  on  a  local 
conflict  which  was  the  true  opening  of  the  Civil 
War. 

The  men  who  combated  the  dragon  of  slavery 
— the  Siegfrieds  of  that  day — fought  him  in  all 
these  directions.  In  Boston  Dr.  Howe  was  among 
the  first  to  organize  resistance  to  the  rendition  of 
fugitive  slaves.  An  escaped  negro  was  kidnapped 
there  in  1846.  This  was  four  years  before  the  pas- 
sage by  Congress  of  the  fugitive-slave  law  made 

2  11 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

it  the  duty  ( !)  of  the  Free  States  to  return  runaway 
negroes  to  slavery.  My  father  called  a  meeting  of 
protest  at  Faneuil  Hall.  He  was  the  chief  speaker 
and  "every  sentence  was  a  sword-thrust"  (T.  W. 
Higginson's  account).  I  give  a  brief  extract  from 
his  address: 

"The  peculiar  institution  which  has  so  long  been 
brooding  over  the  country  like  an  incubus  has  at 
length  spread  abroad  its  murky  wings  and  has 
covered  us  with  its  benumbing  shadow.  It  has 
silenced  the  pulpit,  it  has  muffled  the  press;  its  in- 
fluence is  everywhere. .  .  .  Court  Street  can  find  no 
way  of  escape  for  the  poor  slave.  State  Street, 
that  drank  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  of  liberty — • 
State  Street  is  deaf  to  the  cry  of  the  oppressed 
slave;  the  port  of  Boston  that  has  been  shut  up 
by  a  tyrant  king  as  the  dangerous  haunt  of  free- 
men— the  port  of  Boston  has  been  opened  to  the 
slave-trader;  for  God's  sake,  Mr.  Chairman,  let 
us  keep  Faneuil  Hall  free!" 

Charles  Sumner,  Wendell  Phillips,  and  Theodore 
Parker  also  spoke.  John  Quincy  Adams  presided 
at  the  meeting. 

The  meeting  resulted  in  the  formation  of  a 
vigilance  committee  of  forty,  with  my  father  as 

chairman.    This   continued    its   work    until    the 

12 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

hunting  of  fugitives  ceased  in  Boston.  Secrecy 
necessarily  characterized  its  proceedings.  An  un- 
dated note  from  Dr.  Howe  to  Theodore  Parker 
gives  us  a  hint  of  them: 


.  P.  —  Write  me  a  note  by  bearer.  Tell  him  merely 
whether  I  am  wanted  to-night;  if  I  am  he  will  act  accordingly 
about  bringing  my  wagon. 

I  could  bring  any  one  here  and  keep  him  secret  a  week  and 
no  person  except  Mrs.  H.  and  myself  would  know  it. 
Yours, 

CHEV.2 

This  letter  raises  an  interesting  question.  Were 
fugitives  concealed,  unknown  to  us  children,  in 
our  house?  It  is  quite  possible,  for  both  our 
parents  could  keep  a  secret.  I  remember  a  young 
white  girl  who  was  so  hidden  from  her  drunken 
father  until  other  arrangements  could  be  made  for 
her.  I  remember  also  a  negro  girl,  hardly  more 
than  a  child,  who  was  secreted  beneath  the  roof 
of  Green  Peace.  Her  mistress  had  brought  her  to 
Boston  as  a  servant.  Since  she  was  not  a  run- 
away, the  provisions  of  the  odious  fugitive-slave 

1  From  The  Journals  and  Letters  of  Samuel  Gridley  Howe.  Dana, 
Estes  &  Co. 

2"Chev"  was  the  abbreviation  of  Chevalier,  a  title  bestowed  on 
him  for  his  services  in  the  Greek  Revolution.  He  was  called 
"Chev"  by  certain  intimate  friends. 

13 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

law  did  not  apply  to  her.  Here  at  least  we 
could  cry: 

No  fetters  in  the  Bay  State! 
No  slave  upon  her  land! 

My  father  applied  to  the  courts  and  in  due  process 
of  time  Martha  was  declared  free — so  long  as  she 
remained  on  Northern  soil.  It  may  be  guessed 
that  she  did  not  care  to  return  to  the  South! 

The  feeling  of  the  community  was  strongly  op- 
posed to  taking  part  in  slave-hunts.  Yankee  in- 
genuity often  found  a  way  to  escape  this  odious 
task,  and  yet  keep  within  the  letter  of  the  law. 

A  certain  United  States  marshal  thus  explained 
his  proceedings: 

"Why,  I  never  have  any  trouble  about  run- 
away slaves.  If  I  hear  that  one  has  come  to 
Boston  I  just  go  up  to  Nigger  Hill  [a  part  of  Joy 
Street]  and  say  to  them,  'Do  you  know  of  any 
runaway  slaves  about  here?'  And  they  never  do!" 

This  was  a  somewhat  unique  way  of  giving 
notice  to  the  friends  of  the  fugitive  that  the 
officers  of  the  law  were  after  him. 

If  he  could  only  escape  over  the  border  into  free 
Canada  he  was  safe.  According  to  the  English 
law  no  slave  could  remain  such  on  British  soil. 

14 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

The  moment  he  "shook  the  Lion's  paw"  he  be- 
came free.  Our  law  in  these  United  States  is 
founded  on  the  English  Common  Law.  Alas !  the 
pro-slavery  party  succeeded  in  overthrowing  it. 
No  wonder  that  Senator  Toombs,  of  Georgia, 
boasted  that  he  would  call  the  roll  of  his  slaves 
under  the  shadow  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument. 
The  fugitive-slave  law  gave  him  the  power  to  do 
this,  and  thus  make  our  boasted  freedom  of  the 
soil  only  an  empty  mockery. 

The  vigilance  committee  did  its  work  well,  and 
for  some  time  no  runaway  slaves  were  captured  in 
Boston.  One  poor  wretch  was  finally  caught. 
My  mother  thus  describes  the  event: 

"At  last  a  colored  fugitive,  Anthony  Burns  by 
name,  was  captured  and  held  subject  to  the 
demands  of  his  owner.  The  day  of  his  rendition 
was  a  memorable  one  in  Boston.  The  court- 
house was  surrounded  by  chains  and  guarded  with 
cannon.  The  streets  were  thronged  with  angry 
faces.  Emblems  of  mourning  hung  from  several 
business  and  newspaper  offices.  With  a  show  of 
military  force  the  fugitive  was  marched  through 
the  streets.  No  rescue  was  attempted  at  this 
time,  although  one  had  been  planned  for  an  earlier 
date.  The  ordinance  was  executed;  Burns  was 

15 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

delivered  to  his  master.  But  the  act  once  con- 
summated in  broad  daylight  could  never  be  re- 
peated "  (from  Julia  Ward  Howe's  Recollections  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  Struggle). 

So  great  was  the  public  indignation  against  the 
judge  who  had  allowed  himself  to  be  the  instru- 
ment of  the  Federal  Government  in  the  return  of 
Burns  to  slavery  that  he  was  removed  from  office. 
Shortly  afterward  he  left  Boston  and  went  to  live 
in  Washington. 

The  attempts  to  enforce  the  fugitive-slave  law 
at  the  East  failed,  as  they  were  bound  to  fail. 
The  efforts  to  muzzle  free  speech  at  the  national 
capital  were  more  successful  for  a  time. 

The  task  of  Charles  Sumner  in  upholding  the 
principles  of  freedom  in  the  United  States  Senate 
was  colossal.  For  long  he  stood  almost  alone,  "A 
voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  make  straight  the 
paths  of  the  Lord."  Fortunately  he  was  endowed 
by  nature  with  a  commanding  figure  and  presence 
and  a  wonderful  voice  that  fitted  him  perfectly  for 
his  great  task.  My  mother  thus  described  him: 

"He  was  majestic  in  person,  habitually  reserved 
and  rather  distant  in  manner,  but  sometimes  un- 
bent to  a  smile  in  which  the  real  geniality  of  his 
soul  seemed  to  shed  itself  abroad.  His  voice  was 

16 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

ringing  and  melodious,  his  gestures  somewhat 
constrained,  his  whole  manner,  like  his  matter, 
weighty  and  full  of  dignity." 

As  an  old  and  intimate  friend,  my  father  some- 
times urged  him  to  greater  haste  in  his  task  of 
combating  slavery  at  the  national  capital.  Thus 
Charles  Sumner  writes  to  him  from  Washington, 
February  1,  1854: 

DEAK  HOWE — Do  not  be  impatient  with  me.  I  am  doing 
all  that  I  can.  This  great  wickedness  disturbs  my  sleep,  my 
rest,  my  appetite.  Much  is  to  be  done,  of  which  the  world 
knows  nothing,  in  rallying  an  opposition.  It  has  been  said 
by  others,  that  but  for  Chase  and  Sumner  this  Bill  would 
have  been  rushed  through  at  once,  even  without  debate. 
Douglas  himself  told  me  that  our  opposition  was  the  only 
sincere  opposition  he  had  to  encounter.  But  this  is  not  true. 
There  are  others  here  who  are  in  earnest. 

My  longing  is  to  rally  the  country  against  the  Bill1  and 
I  desire  to  let  others  come  forward  and  broaden  our  front. 

Our  Legislature  ought  to  speak  unanimously.  Our  people 
should  revive  the  old  report  and  resolutions  of  1S20.2 

At  present  our  first  wish  is  delay,  that  the  country  may 
be  aroused. 

"Would  that  night  or  Bliicher  had  come!" 

God  bless  you  always! 

c.  s. 

1  The  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill. 

2  Protesting  against  the  Missouri  Compromise. 

17 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

In  the  fateful  spring  of  1856  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Howe 
were  in  Washington.  They  saw  both  Charles 
Sumner  and  Preston  Brooks.  My  mother  has 
given  us  pictures  of  the  two  men  as  she  then  saw 
them: 

"Charles  Sumner  looked  up  and,  seeing  me  in 
the  gallery,  greeted  me  with  a  smile  of  recognition. 
I  shall  never  forget  the  beauty  of  that  smile. 
It  seemed  to  me  to  illuminate  the  whole  precinct 
with  a  silvery  radiance.  There  was  in  it  all  the 
innocence  of  his  sweet  and  noble  nature."  l 

"At  Willard's  Hotel  I  observed  at  a  table  near 
our  own  a  typical  Southerner  of  that  time,  hand- 
some, but  with  a  reckless  and  defiant  expression 
of  countenance  which  struck  me  unpleasantly. 
This  was  Preston  Brooks,  of  South  Carolina." 2 

During  one  of  his  visits  to  the  Howes,  Sumner 
said: 

"I  shall  soon  deliver  a  speech  in  the  Senate 
which  will  occasion  a  good  deal  of  excitement.  It 
will  not  surprise  me  if  people  leave  their  seats  and 
show  signs  of  unusual  disturbance." 

My  mother  comments  thus: 

1  From  Reminiscences  by  Julia  Ward  Howe.    Houghton,  Mifflin 
&Co. 

2  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Struggle.     By  Julia  Ward  Howe. 

18 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

"At  the  moment  I  did  not  give  much  heed  to  his 
words,  but  they  came  back  to  me,  not  much  later, 
with  the  force  of  prophecy.  For  Mr.  Sumner  did 
make  this  speech,  and  though  at  the  moment 
nothing  was  done  against  him,  the  would-be 
assassin  only  waited  for  a  more  convenient  season 
to  spring  upon  his  victim  and  to  maim  him  for  life. 
Choosing  a  moment  when  Mr.  Sumner's  imme- 
diate friends  were  not  in  the  Senate  Chamber, 
Brooks  of  South  Carolina,  armed  with  a  cane  of 
india-rubber,  attacked  him  in  the  rear,  knocking 
him  from  his  seat  with  one  blow,  and  beating 
him  about  the  head  until  he  lay  bleeding  and 
senseless  upon  the  floor.  Although  the  partisans 
of  the  South  openly  applauded  this  deed,  its 
cowardly  brutality  was  really  repudiated  by  all 
who  had  any  sense  of  honor,  without  geographical 
distinction.  The  blow,  fatal  to  Sumner's  health, 
was  still  more  fatal  to  the  cause  it  was  meant  to 
serve,  and  even  to  the  man  who  dealt  it.  Within 
one  year  his  murderous  hand  was  paralyzed  in 
death,  and  Sumner,  after  hanging  long  between 
life  and  death,  stood  once  more  erect,  with  the 
aureole  of  martyrdom  on  his  brow,  and  with  the 
dear-bought  glory  of  his  scars  a  more  potent 
witness  for  the  truth  than  ever.  His  place 

19 


"THE   BATTLE   HYMN   OF  TH*, 

in  the  Senate  remained  for  a  time  eloquently 
empty." 1 

Hon.  Miles  Taylor,  of  Louisiana,  defended  in  the 
Senate  the  attack  on  Sumner.  A  part  of  his 
speech  makes  curious  reading: 

"If  this  new  dogma"  (the  evil  of  slavery) 
"should  be  received  by  the  American  people  with 
favor,  it  can  only  be  when  all  respect  for  revela- 
tion .  .  .  has  been  utterly  swept  away  by  such  a 
flood  of  irreligion  and  foul  philosophy  as  never 
before  set  in." 

1  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Struggle.     By  Julia  Ward  Howe. 


II 


THE    CRIME    AGAINST    KANSAS 

Border  ruffians  from  Missouri  carry  Kansas  elections  with  pistol  and 
bowie-knife.  They  prevent  peaceable  Free  State  emigrants  from 
entering  the  national  territory — Dr.  Howe  carries  out  aid  from  New 
England — Clergymen  and  Sharp's  rifles — Mrs.  Howe's  indignant 
verses — She  opens  the  door  for  John  Brown,  the  hero  of  the  war 
in  Kansas — Gov.  Andrew,  Theodore  Parker,  Charles  Sumner — 
The  attack  on  Fort  Sumter — "The  death-blow  of  slavery." 

THESE  assaults  by  the  serpent  of  slavery  on 
the  free  institutions  of  the  North  and  East 
were  dangerous  enough,  yet,  like  other  evils,  they 
brought  their  own  remedies  with  them.  Such  an 
open  attack  on  free  speech  as  that  on  Sumner 
was  sure  to  be  resented,  while  the  forcible  carrying- 
off  of  fugitive  slaves  under  the  shadow  of  old 
Faneuil  Hall  aroused  a  degree  of  wrath  that  even 
the  pro-slavery  leaders  saw  was  ominous. 

"The  crime  against  Kansas"  was  still  more 
alarming  because  it  threatened  to  turn  a  free 
Territory  into  a  slave  State.  In  1854  the  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  bill  had  been  passed,  repealing  the 

21 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Missouri  Compromise  and  exposing  a  vast  area  of 
virgin  soil  to  the  encroachments  of  the  "peculiar 
institution." 

The  Free-soil  men  were  speedily  on  the  alert. 
During  that  same  year  of  1854  two  Massachu- 
setts colonies  were  sent  out  to  Kansas,  others 
going  later. 

But  the  leaders  of  the  slave  power  had  no  inten- 
tion of  allowing  men  from  the  free  States  to  settle 
peacefully  in  Kansas.  They  had  repealed  the 
Missouri  Compromise  with  the  express  purpose  of 
gaining  a  new  slave  State,  and  this  was  to  be  ac- 
complished by  whatever  means  were  necessary. 

It  was  an  easy  matter  to  send  men  from  Missouri 
into  the  adjacent  Territory  of  Kansas — to  vote 
there  and  then  to  return  to  their  homes  across  the 
Mississippi. 

The  New  York  Herald  of  April  20,  1855,  pub- 
lished the  following  letter  from  a  correspondent  in 
Brunswick,  Missouri: 

From  five  to  seven  thousand  men  started  from  Missouri 
to  attend  the  election,  some  to  remove,  but  the  most  to  re- 
turn to  their  families,  with  an  intention,  if  they  liked  the 
Territory,  to  make  it  their  permanent  abode  at  the  earliest 
moment  practicable.  But  they  intended  to  vote.  .  .  .  Indeed, 

every  county  furnished  its  quota;  and  when  they  set  out  it 

22 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

looked  like  an  army. . . .  They  were  armed. . . .  Fifteen  hundred 
wore  on  their  hats  bunches  of  hemp.  They  were  resolved 
if  a  tyrant  attempted  to  trample  upon  the  rights  of  the 
sovereign  people  to  hang  him. 

It  will  be  noted  that  "the  rights  of  the  sovereign 
people"  were  to  go  to  the  ballot-box  not  in  their 
own,  but  in  another  State.  These  "border  ruf- 
fians" took  possession  of  the  polls  and  carried  the 
first  election  with  pistol  and  bowie-knife. 

The  pro-slavery  leaders  strove  to  drive  out  the 
colonists  from  the  free  States  and  to  prevent  ad- 
ditional emigrants  from  entering  the  Territory.  A 
campaign  of  frightfulness  was  inaugurated — with 
the  usual  result. 

Governor  Geary  of  Kansas,  although  a  pro- 
slavery  official  himself,  wrote  (Dec.  22,  1856)  that 
he  heartily  despised  the  abolitionists,  but  that 
"  The  persecutions  of  the  Free  State  men  here  were 
not  exceeded  by  those  of  the  early  Christians." 

My  father  was  deeply  interested  in  the  coloniza- 
tion of  Kansas  and  in  the  struggle  for  freedom 
within  its  borders.  He  helped  in  1854  to  organize 
the  "New  England  Emigrant  Aid  Company" 
which  assisted  parties  of  settlers  to  go  to  the 
Territory.  In  1856  matters  began  to  look  very 
dark  for  the  colonists  from  the  free  States.  "Dr. 

23 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Howe  was  stirred  to  his  highest  activity  by  the 
news  from  Kansas  and  by  the  brutal  assault  on 
Charles  Sumner"  (F.  B.  Sanborn).  With  others 
he  called  and  organized  the  Faneuil  Hall  meeting. 
He  was  made  chairman  of  its  committee,  and  at 
once  sent  two  thousand  dollars  to  St.  Louis  for 
use  in  Kansas.  This  prompt  action  had  an  im- 
portant effect  on  the  discouraged  settlers.  Soon 
afterward  he  started  for  Kansas  to  give  further 
aid  to  the  colonists. 

"I  have  traversed  the  whole  length  of  the  State 
of  Iowa  on  horseback  or  in  a  cart,  sleeping  in 
said  cart  or  in  worse  lodgings,  among  dirty  men 
on  the  floor  of  dirty  huts.  We  have  organized 
a  pretty  good  line  of  communication  between 
our  base  and  the  corps  of  emigrants  who  have 
now  advanced  into  the  Territory  of  Nebraska. 
Everything  depends  upon  the  success  of  the  at- 
tempt to  break  through  the  cordon  infernale  which 
Missouri  has  drawn  across  the  northern  frontier  of 
Kansas." 1 

In  another  letter  he  writes: 

The  boats  on  the  river  are  beset  by  spies  and  ruffians, 
are  hauled  up  at  various  places  and  thoroughly  searched  for 
anti-slavery  men. 

1  Letter  from  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe  to  Charles  Sumner. 
24 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

He  thus  describes  the  emigrants : l 

CAMP  OF  THE  EMIGRATION,  NEBRASKA  TERRITORY, 

July  29,  '56. 

The  emigration  is  indeed  a  noble  one;  sturdy,  industrious, 
temperate,  resolute  men.  ...  I  wish  our  friends  in  the  East 
could  know  the  character  and  behavior  of  these  emigrants. 
They  are  and  have  been  for  two  weeks  encamped  out  upon 
these  vast  prairies  in  their  tents  and  waggons  waiting  pa- 
tiently for  the  signal  to  move,  exhausting  all  peaceful  re- 
sources and  negotiations  before  resorting  to  force. 

There  is  no  liquor  in  the  whole  camp;  no  smoking,  no 
swearing,  no  irregularity.  They  drink  cold  water,  live  mostly 
on  mush  and  rice  and  the  simplest,  cheapest  fare.  They  have 
instruction  for  the  little  children;  they  have  Sunday-schools, 
prayer-meetings,  and  are  altogether  a  most  sober  and  earnest 
community.  Most  of  the  loafers  have  dropped  off.  The 
Wisconsin  company,  about  one  hundred,  give  a  tone  to  all 
the  others.  I  could  give  you  a  picture  of  the  drunken,  rollick- 
ing ruffians  who  oppose  this  emigration — but  you  know  it. 
Will  the  North  allow  such  an  emigration  to  be  shut  out 
of  the  National  Territory  by  such  brigands? 

In  another  letter  he  tells  us  that  among  the 
emigrants  were  thirty-eight  women  and  children — 
grandfathers  and  grandmothers,  too,  journeying 
with  their  live  stock  in  carts  drawn  by  oxen  .to 
the  promised  land. 

1  Journals  and  Letters  of  Samuel  Gridley  Howe.  Dana,  Estes  &  Co. 
25 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

He  says  nothing  of  danger  to  himself,  but  Hon. 
Andrew  D.  White  tells  us  that  "Dr.  Howe  had 
braved  death  again  and  again  while  aiding  the 
Free  State  men  against  the  pro-slavery  myrmidons 
of  Kansas." 

The  strength  of  the  movement  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  during  this  year  (1856)  the 
people  of  Massachusetts  sent  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  in  money,  clothing,  and  arms  to  help 
the  Free  State  colonists.  This  money  did  not 
come  from  the  radicals  only,  but  from  "Hunkers," 
as  they  were  then  called — i.  e.,  conservative  and 
well-to-do  citizens.  My  father  wrote:  "People 
pay  readily  here  for  Sharp's  rifles.  One  lady 
offered  me  one  hundred  dollars  the  other  day, 
and  to-day  a  clergyman  offered  me  one  hundred 
dollars."  " 

My  mother  was  greatly  moved  by  these  tragic 
events — the  assault  on  Sumner  and  the  civil  war 
in  Kansas.  In  Words  for  the  Hour — a  volume  of 
her  poems  published  in  1857 — we  find  a  record  of 
her  just  indignation.  In  the  "Sermon  of  Spring" 
she  describes  Kansas  as: 

Wearing  the  green  nodding  plumes  of  the  Court  of  the  Prairie, 
Gyves  on  her  free-born  limbs,  on  her  fair  arms  shackles, 
Blood  on  her  garments,  terror  and  grief  in  her  features. 

26 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

"Tremble,"  she  cried,  "tho'  the  battle  seem  thine  for  a  season, 
Not  a  drop  of  my  blood  shall  be  wanting  to  judge  thee. 
Tremble,  thou  fallen  from  mercy  ere  fallen  from  office." 

This  poem,  which  is  a  long  one,  contains  a 
tribute  to  Sumner,  as  do  also  "Tremont  Temple," 
"The  Senator's  Return,"  and  "An  Hour  in  the 
Senate."  I  give  a  brief  extract  from  the  last 
named : 

Falls  there  no  lightning  from  yon  distant  heaven 
To  crush  this  man's  potential  impudence? 
Shall  not  its  outraged  patience  thunder:    "Hence! 

Forsake  the  shrine  where  Liberty  was  given!" 

"The  strong  shall  rule,  the  arm  of  force  have  sway, 
The  helpless  multitude  in  bonds  abide — " 
Again  the  chuckle  and  the  shake  of  pride — 

"God's  for  the  stronger — so  great  Captains  say." 

Yet,  rise  to  answer,  chafing  in  thy  chair, 

With  soul  indignant  stirred,  and  flushing  brow. 
Thou  art  God's  candidate — speak  soothly  now, 

Let  every  word  anticipate  a  prayer. 

Gather  in  thine  the  outstretched  hands  that  strive 
To  help  thy  pleading,  agonized  and  dumb; 
Bear  up  the  hearts  whose  silent  sorrows  come 

For  utterance,  to  the  voice  that  thou  canst  give. 

3  27 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

In  the  same  volume  are  verses  entitled  "Slave 
Eloquence"  and  "Slave  Suicide." 

How  did  the  children  of  the  household  feel  dur- 
ing this  period  of  "Sturm  und  Drang"?  To  the 
older  ones,  at  least,  it  was  a  most  exciting  time. 
While  we  did  not  by  any  means  know  of  all  that 
was  going  on,  we  felt  very  strongly  the  electric 
current  of  indignation  that  thrilled  through  our 
home,  as  well  as  the  stir  of  action.  My  father 
early  taught  us  to  love  freedom  and  to  hate 
slavery.  He  gave  us,  in  brief,  clear  outline,  the 
story  of  the  aggressions  of  the  slave  power.  We 
knew  of  the  iniquity  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
before  we  were  in  our  teens.  Child  that  I  was,  I 
was  greatly  moved  when  he  repeated  Lowell's 
well-known  lines: 

Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne, — • 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and,  behind  the  dim 

unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  His 

own. 

My  father  had  always  something  of  the  soldier 
about  him — a  quick,  active  step,  gallant  bearing, 
and  a  voice  tender,  yet  strong,  "A  voice  to  lead  a 
regiment."  This  was  the  natural  consequence  of 
his  early  experiences  in  the  Greek  War  of  Inde- 

28 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

pendence,  when  he  served  some  seven  years  as 
surgeon,  soldier,  and — most  important  of  all — 
almoner  of  America's  bounty  to  the  peaceful 
population.  The  latter  would  have  perished  of 
starvation  save  for  the  supplies  sent  out  in  re- 
sponse to  Dr.  Howe's  appeals  to  his  countrymen. 
The  greater  part  of  his  life  was  devoted  to  the 
healing  arts  of  the  good  physician.  Yet  the  por- 
traits of  him,  taken  during  the  tremendous  strug- 
gle of  the  anti-slavery  period,  show  a  sternness  not 
visible  in  his  younger  nor  yet  in  his  later  days. 

In  her  poem  "A  Rough  Sketch"  my  mother 
described  him  as  he  seemed  to  her  at  this  time: 

A  great  grieved  heart,  an  iron  will, 

As  fearless  blood  as  ever  ran; 
A  form  elate  with  nervous  strength 

And  fibrous  vigor, — all  a  man. 

Charles  Sumner  came  often  to  Green  Peace  when 
he  was  in  Boston.  We  children  greatly  admired 
him.  He  seemed  to  us,  and  doubtless  to  others, 
a  species  of  superman.  I  can  hardly  think  of 
those  days  without  the  organ  accompaniment  of 
his  voice — deeper  than  the  depths,  round  and  full. 
When  our  friend  was  stricken  down  in  the  Senate, 
great  was  our  youthful  indignation.  Many  were 

29 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

the  arguments  held  with  our  mates  at  school  and 
dancing-school,  often  the  children  of  the  "Hunker" 
class.  They  sought  to  justify  the  attack,  and  we 
replied  with  the  testimony  of  an  eye-witness  to 
the  scene  (Henry  Wilson,  afterward  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States)  and  the  fact  that  a  colleague 
of  Brooks  stood,  waving  a  pistol1  in  each  hand, 
to  prevent  any  interference  in  behalf  of  Sumner. 
We  had  heard  about  the  cruel  "Mochsa"  with 
which  his  back  was  burned  in  the  hope  of  cure,  and 
we  lamented  his  sufferings. 

John  A.  Andrew,  afterward  the  War  Governor 
of  the  State,  was  another  intimate  of  our  house- 
hold, a  great  friend  of  both  our  parents.  Genial 
and  merry,  as  a  rule,  he  yet  could  be  sternly  elo- 
quent in  the  denunciation  of  slavery. 

Indeed,  it  was  a  speech  of  this  nature  which  first 
brought  him  into  prominence.  In  the  Massa- 
chusetts Legislature  of  1858  the  most  striking 
figure  was  that  of  Caleb  Gushing.  He  had  been 
Attorney-General  in  President  Franklin  Pierce's 
Cabinet  and  was  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the 
United  States.  When  all  were  silent  before  his 


1  History  declares  that  a  colleague  of  Brooks  did  thus  stand,  to 
prevent  any  one's  coming  to  Sumner's  assistance.  About  the 
pistols,  I  am  not  sure. 

30 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

oratory  and  no  one  felt  equal  to  opposing  this 
master  of  debate,  Andrew,  a  young  advocate,  was 
moved,  like  another  David,  to  attack  his  Goliath. 
In  a  speech  of  great  eloquence  he  vindicated  the 
action  of  the  Governor  and  the  Legislature  in 
removing  from  office  the  judge  who  had  sent 
Anthony  Burns  back  into  slavery  and  thus  out- 
raged the  conscience  of  the  Bay  State.  As  a 
lawyer  he  sustained  his  opinion  by  legal  prec- 
edents. 

"When  he  took  his  seat  there  was  a  storm  of 
applause.  The  House  was  wild  with  excitement. 
Some  members  cried  for  joy;  others  cheered, 
waved  their  handkerchiefs,  and  threw  whatever 
they  could  find  into  the  air." 1 

And  so,  like  David,  he  won  not  only  the  battle 
of  the  day,  but  the  leadership  of  his  people  in  the 
stormy  times  that  soon  followed. 

When  a  box  of  copperhead  snakes  was  sent  to 
our  beloved  Governor  we  were  again  indignant. 
(Political  opponents  had  not  then  learned  to  send 
gifts  of  bombs.) 

From  Kansas  itself  Martin  F.  Conway  came  to 
us,  full  of  fiery  zeal  for  the  Free  State  cause,  al- 
though born  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line. 

1  Sketch  of  John  Albion  Andrew  by  Eben  F.  Stone. 
31 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

He  later  represented  the  young  State  in  Congress. 
Samuel  Downer  and  George  L.  Stearns  we  often 
saw;  both  were  very  active  in  the  anti-slavery 
cause.  The  latter  was  remarkable  for  a  very  long 
and  beautiful  beard,  brown  and  soft,  like  a 
woman's  hair  and  reaching  to  his  waist. 

We  heard  burning  words  about  the  duty  of 
Massachusetts  during  these  assaults  of  the  slave 
power.  Could  she  endure  them,  or  should  she  not 
rather  seek  to  withdraw  from  the  Union? 

These  words  sound  strangely  to  us  now,  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  in  the  fifties  we  had  seen 
our  fair  Bay  State  made  an  annex  to  slave  terri- 
tory. Men  might  well  ask  one  another,  "  Can  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  endure  the  dis- 
grace of  having  slave-hunts  within  her  borders?" 
"The  Irrepressible  Conflict"  had  come.  When 
the  pro-slavery  leaders  forced  the  fugitive-slave 
law  through  Congress  they  struck  a  blow  at  the 
life  of  the  nation  as  deadly  as  that  of  Fort  Sumter. 
The  latter  was  the  inevitable  sequel  of  the  former. 

We  saw  often  at  Green  Peace  another  intimate 
friend  of  our  parents — Theodore  Parker,  the  famous 
preacher  and  reformer.  As  he  wore  spectacles 
and  was  prematurely  bald,  he  did  not  leave  upon 
our  childish  minds  the  impression  of  grandeur 

32 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

inseparably  connected  with  Charles  Sumner.  Yet 
the  splendid  dome  of  his  head  gave  evidence  of  his 
great  intellect,  while  his  blue  eyes  looked  kindly 
and  often  merrily  at  us.  Having  no  children  of 
his  own,  he  would  have  liked  to  adopt  our  youngest 
sister,  could  our  parents  have  been  persuaded  to 
part  with  her. 

Theodore  Parker  advocated  the  anti-slavery 
cause  with  great  eloquence  in  the  pulpit.  He  also 
belonged  to  my  father's  vigilance  committee  and 
harbored  fugitive  slaves  in  his  own  home.  To  one 
couple  of  runaway  negroes  he  presented  a  Bible  and 
a  sword — after  marrying  them  legally — a  thing  not 
always  done  in  the  day  of  slavery.  My  father  suc- 
ceeded in  sending  away  from  Boston  the  man  who 
attempted  to  carry  them  back  to  the  South,  and 
William  and  Ellen  Croft  found  freedom  in  England. 

Theodore  Parker's  sermons  had  a  powerful  in- 
fluence on  his  great  congregation,  of  which  my 
mother  was  for  some  time  a  member.  In  one  of 
her  tributes  to  him  she  tells  us  how  he  drew  them 
all  toward  the  light  of  a  better  day  and  prepared 
them  also  for  "the  war  of  blood  and  iron." 

"I  found  that  it  was  by  the  spirit  of  the  higher 
humanity  that  he  brought  his  hearers  into  sym- 
pathy with  all  reforms  and  with  the  better  society 

33 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

that  should  ripen  out  of  them.  Freedom  for 
black  and  white,  opportunity  for  man  and  woman, 
the  logic  of  conscience  and  the  logic  of  progress — 
this  was  the  discipline  of  his  pulpit.  .  .  .  Before 
its  [the  Civil  War's]  first  trumpet  blast  blew  his 
great  heart  had  ceased  to  beat.  But  a  great  body 
of  us  remembered  his  prophecy  and  his  strategy 
and  might  have  cried,  as  did  Walt  Whitman  at  a 
later  date,  'O  captain,  my  captain!'"  1 

Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  our  pastor  for 
many  years,  was  among  those  whose  visits  gave 
pleasure  and  inspiration  as  well  to  our  household. 
He  did  not  hesitate  to  preach  anti-slavery  doc- 
trines, unpopular  as  they  were,  from  his  pulpit. 
My  mother  says  of  him  at  this  time: 

"In  the  agitated  period  which  preceded  the  Civil 
War  and  in  that  which  followed  it  he  in  his  modest 
pulpit  became  one  of  the  leaders,  not  of  his  own 
flock  alone,  but  of  the  community  to  which  he 
belonged.  I  can  imagine  few  things  more  in- 
structive and  desirable  than  was  his  preaching  in 
those  troublous  times,  so  full  of  unanswered  ques- 
tion and  unreconciled  discord." 2 

Her  beloved   minister  was  among   those   who 

1  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Struggle.     By  Julia  Ward  Howe. 

2  Reminiscences  by  Julia  Ward  Howe. 

34 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

accompanied  my  mother  on  the  visit  to  the  army 
which  inspired  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic."  This  was  written  to  the  tune  of: 

John  Brown's  body  lies  a-moldering  in  the  grave, 
His  soul  is  marching  on. 

"Old  Ossawotamie  Brown"  was  the  true  hero 
of  the  bloody  little  war  in  Kansas,  where  the  Free 
State  men  finally  prevailed,  though  many  lives 
were  lost.  He  has  been  called  "Savior  of  Kansas 
and  Liberator  of  the  Slave."  He  came  at  least 
once  to  Green  Peace.  My  mother  has  described 
her  meeting  with  him.  My  father  had  told  her 
some  time  previously  about  a  man  who  "seemed 
to  intend  to  devote  his  life  to  the  redemption  of 
the  colored  race  from  slavery,  even  as  Christ  had 
willingly  offered  His  life  for  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind." One  day  he  reminded  her  of  the  person 
so  described,  and  added:  "That  man  will  call  here 
this  afternoon.  You  will  receive  him.  His  name 
is  John  Brown."  .  .  . 

Later,  my  mother  wrote  of  this  meeting: 
"At  the  expected  time  I  heard  the  bell  ring,  and, 
on  answering  it,  beheld  a  middle-aged,  middle- 
sized   man,  with  hair  and  beard  of  amber  color 
streaked  with  gray.    He  looked  a  Puritan  of  the 

35 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Puritans,  forceful,  concentrated,  and  self-con- 
tained. We  had  a  brief  interview,  of  which  I  only 
remember  my  great  gratification  at  meeting  one 
of  whom  I  had  heard  so  good  an  account.  I  saw 
him  once  again  at  Dr.  Howe's  office,  and  then 
heard  no  more  of  him  for  some  time."  l 

Elsewhere  she  has  written  apropos  of  his  raid 
at  Harper's  Ferry: 

"None  of  us  could  exactly  approve  an  act  so 
revolutionary  in  its  character,  yet  the  great-hearted 
attempt  enlisted  our  sympathies  very  strongly. 
The  weeks  of  John  Brown's  imprisonment  were 
very  sad  ones,  and  the  day  of  his  death  was  one  of 
general  mourning  in  New  England."  2 

With  the  election  of  Lincoln  we  seemed  to  come 
to  smoother  times.  We  young  people  certainly 
did  not  realize  that  we  were  on  the  brink  of  civil 
war,  although  friends  who  had  visited  the  South 
warned  us  of  the  preparations  going  on  there. 
If  there  should  be  any  struggle,  it  would  be  a 
brief  one,  people  said. 

Suddenly,  like  a  flash  of  lightning  out  of  a  clear 
sky,  came  the  firing  on  Sumter.  My  father  came 
triumphantly  into  the  nursery  and  called  out  to 
his  children:  "Sumter  has  been  fired  upon! 

1  From  Reminiscences  by  Julia  Ward  Howe.  2  Ibid. 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

That's  the  death-blow  of  slavery."  Little  did  he 
or  we  realize  how  long  and  terrible  the  conflict 
would  be.  But  he  knew  that  the  serpent  had  re- 
ceived its  death -wound.  All  through  the  long 
and  terrible  war  he  cheered  my  mother  by  his 
unyielding  belief  in  the  ultimate  success  of  our 
arms. 

So  the  prelude  ended  and  the  greater  tragedy 
began.  The  conflict  of  ideas,  the  most  soul- 
stirring  period  of  our  history,  passed  into  the  con- 
flict of  arms.  In  the  midst  of  its  agony  the  stead- 
fast soul  of  a  woman  saw  the  presage  of  victory 
and  gave  the  message,  a  message  never  to  be  for- 
gotten, to  her  people  and  to  the  world. 


Ill 


MRS.    HOWE    VISITS    THE    ARMY    OF    THE    POTOMAC 

The  Civil  War  breaks  out — Dr.  Howe  is  appointed  a  member  of  the 
Sanitary  Commission — Mrs.  Howe  accompanies  him  to  Washing- 
ton— She  makes  her  maiden  speech  to  a  Massachusetts  regiment — 
She  sees  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred  circling  camps — She  visits 
the  army  and  her  carriage  is  involved  in  a  military  movement — 
She  is  surrounded  by  "Burnished  rows  of  steel." 

THE  years  between  1850  and  1857,  eventful 
as  they  were,  appear  to  me  almost  a  period 
of  play  when  compared  with  the  time  of  trial  which 
was  to  follow.  It  might  have  been  likened  to  the 
tuning  of  instruments  before  some  great  musical 
solemnity.  The  theme  was  already  suggested,  but 
of  its  wild  and  terrible  development  who  could 
have  had  any  foreknowledge?" 

In  her  Reminiscences  my  mother  thus  compares 
the  Civil  War  and  its  prelude.  Again  she  says  of 
the  former: 

"Its  cruel  fangs  fastened  upon  the  very  heart  of 
Boston  and  took  from  us  our  best  and  bravest. 
From  many  a  stately  mansion  father  or  son  went 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

forth,  followed  by  weeping,  to  be  brought  back 
for  bitterer  sorrow." 

Mercifully  she  was  spared  this  last.  My  father 
was  too  old  for  military  service  and  no  longer  in 
vigorous  health,  being  in  his  sixtieth  year  when  the 
war  broke  out;  my  eldest  brother  was  just  thirteen 
years  of  age.  Nevertheless  she  was  brought  into 
close  touch  with  the  activities  of  the  great  struggle 
from  the  beginning. 

On  the  day  when  the  news  of  the  attack  on 
Fort  Sumter  was  received  Dr.  Howe  wrote  to 
Governor  Andrew,  offering  his  services: 

"Since  they  will  have  it  so — in  the  name  of  God, 
Amen !  Now  let  all  the  governors  and  chief  men  of 
the  peopleseetoit  that  war  shall  not  cease  until  eman- 
cipation is  secure.  If  I  can  be  of  any  use,  anywhere, 
in  any  capacity  (save  that  of  spy),  command  me."  1 

With  what  swiftness  the  "Great  War  Governor 
of  Massachusetts"  acted  at  this  time  is  matter  of 
history.  Two  days  after  the  President  issued  a 
call  for  troops,  three  regiments  started  for  Wash- 
ington. Massachusetts  was  thus  the  first  State 
to  come  to  the  aid  of  the  Union — the  first,  alas! 
to  have  her  sons  struck  down  and  slain. 

JFrom  Journals  and  Letters  of  Samuel  Gridley  Howe.  Dana, 
Estes  &  Co. 

39 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Governor  Andrew  was  glad  to  avail  himself  of 
Dr.  Howe's  offer  of  aid.  The  latter's  early  ex- 
periences in  Greece  made  his  help  and  counsel 
valuable  both  to  the  State  and  to  the  nation. 
Gen.  Winfield  Scott,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Army,  and  Governor  Andrew  requested  him,  on 
May  2,  1861,  to  make  a  sanitary  survey  of  the 
Massachusetts  troops  in  the  field  at  and  near  the 
national  capital.  Before  the  end  of  the  month 
the  Sanitary  Commission  was  created,  Dr.  Howe 
being  one  of  the  original  members  appointed  by 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

Governor  Andrew  was  almost  overwhelmed 
with  the  manifold  cares  and  duties  of  his  office. 
Our  house  was  one  of  the  places  where  he  took 
refuge  when  he  greatly  needed  rest.  He  was 
obliged  to  give  up  going  to  church  early  in  the 
war  because  many  people  followed  him  there, 
importuning  him  with  requests  of  all  sorts. 

Thus  the  questions  of  the  Civil  War  were 
brought  urgently  to  my  mother's  mind  in  her 
own  home,  just  as  those  of  the  anti-slavery 
period  had  been  a  year  or  two  before. 

To  quote  her  Reminiscences  again: 

"The  record  of  our  State  during  the  war  was  a 
proud  one.  The  repeated  calls  for  men  and  for 

40 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

money  were  always  promptly  and  generously 
answered.  And  this  promptness  was  greatly  for- 
warded by  the  energy  and  patriotic  vigilance  of 
the  Governor.  I  heard  much  of  this  at  the  time, 
especially  from  my  husband,  who  was  greatly  at- 
tached to  the  Governor  and  who  himself  took  an 
intense  interest  in  all  the  operations  of  the  war. 
...  I  seemed  to  live  in  and  along  with  the  war, 
while  it  was  in  progress,  and  to  follow  all  its  ups 
and  downs,  its  good  and  ill  fortune  with  these  two 
brave  men,  Dr.  Howe  and  Governor  Andrew. 
Neither  of  them  for  a  moment  doubted  the  final 
result  of  the  struggle,  but  both  they  and  I  were 
often  very  sad  and  much  discouraged." 

Governor  Andrew  was  often  summoned  to 
Washington.  Dr.  Howe's  duties  as  a  member  of 
the  Sanitary  Commission  also  took  him  there. 
Thus  it  happened  that  my  mother  went  to  the 
national  capital  in  their  company  in  the  late 
autumn  of  1861.  Mrs.  Andrew,  the  Governor's 
wife,  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,  and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Edwin  P.  Whipple  were  also  of  the  party. 

As  they  drew  near  Washington  they  saw  omi- 
nous signs  of  the  dangers  encompassing  the  city. 
Mrs.  Howe  noticed  little  groups  of  armed  men 
sitting  near  a  fire — pickets  guarding  the  railroad, 

41 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

her  husband  told  her.  For  the  Confederate  Army 
was  not  far  off,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  lying  like 
a  steel  girdle  about  Washington,  to  protect  it. 

This  was  my  mother's  first  glimpse  of  the  Union 
Army  which  later  made  such  a  deep  impression 
upon  her  mind  and  heart.  I  have  always  fancied, 
though  she  does  not  say  so,  that  some  of  the  vivid 
images  of  the  "Battle  Hymn"  were  suggested  by 
the  scenes  of  this  journey. 

I  have  seen  Him  in  the  watch-fires  of  a  hundred  circling 

camps; 
They  have  builded  Him  an  altar  in  the  evening  dews  and 

damps; 
I  can  read  His  righteous  sentence  by  the  dim  and  flaring 

lamps. 

His  day  is  marching  on! 

Arrived  at  Washington,  the  party  established 
themselves  at  Willard's  Hotel.  Evidences  of  the 
war  were  to  be  seen  on  all  sides.  Soldiers  on 
horseback  galloped  about  the  streets,  while  am- 
bulances with  four  horses  passed  by  the  windows 
and  sometimes  stopped  before  the  hotel  itself. 
Near  at  hand,  my  mother  saw  "The  ghastly  ad- 
vertisement of  an  agency  for  embalming  and  for- 
warding the  bodies  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  the 

42 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

fight  or  who  had  perished  by  fever."1  In  the 
vicinity  of  this  establishment  was  the  office  of  the 
New  York  Herald. 

Governor  Andrew  and  Dr.  Howe  were  busy  with 
their  official  duties;  indeed,  the  former  was  under 
such  a  tremendous  pressure  of  work  and  care 
that  he  died  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war. 
The  latter  "carried  his  restless  energy  and  in- 
domitable will  from  camp  to  hospital,  from  battle- 
field to  bureau."  His  reports  and  letters  show 
how  deeply  he  was  troubled  by  the  lack  of  proper 
sanitation  among  the  troops. 

My  mother  again  came  in  touch  with  the  Army, 
visiting  the  camps  and  hospitals  in  the  company 
of  Mr.  Clarke  and  the  Rev.  William  Henry  Chan- 
ning.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  these  excursions 
were  made  in  no  spirit  of  idle  curiosity. 

In  ordinary  times  she  would  not  look  at  a  cut 
finger  if  she  could  help  it.  I  remember  her  telling 
us  of  one  dreadful  woman  who  asked  to  be  shown 
the  worst  wound  in  the  hospital.  As  a  result  this 
morbid  person  was  so  overcome  with  the  horror 
of  it  that  the  surgeon  was  obliged  to  leave  his 
patient  and  attend  to  the  visitor,  while  she  went 
from  one  fainting  fit  into  another! 

1  Reminiscences. 
4  43 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Up  to  this  time  my  mother  had  never  spoken  in 
public.  It  was  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
that  she  first  received  the  inspiration  to  do  so. 
In  company  with  her  party  of  friends  she  had  made 
"a  reconnoitering  expedition,"  visiting,  among 
other  places,  the  headquarters  of  Col.  William  B. 
Greene,  of  the  First  Massachusetts  Heavy  Artillery. 
The  colonel,  who  was  an  old  friend,  warmly  wel- 
comed his  visitors.  Soon  he  said  to  my  mother, 
"Mrs.  Howe,  you  must  speak  to  my  men." 
What  did  he  see  in  her  face  that  prompted  him  to 
make  such  a  startling  request? 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  1861  the  women 
of  our  country  were,  with  some  notable  exceptions, 
entirely  unaccustomed  to  speaking  in  public.  A 
few  suffragists  and  anti-slavery  leaders  addressed 
audiences,  but  my  mother  had  not  at  this  time 
joined  their  ranks. 

Yet  she  doubtless  then  possessed,  although 
she  did  not  know  it,  the  power  of  thus  express- 
ing herself.  Colonel  Greene  must  have  read 
in  her  face  something  of  the  emotion  which 
poured  itself  out  in  the  "Battle  Hymn."  He 
must  have  known,  too,  that  she  had  already 
written  stirring  verses.  So  he  not  only  asked,  but 

44 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

insisted  that  she  should  address  the  men  under 
his  command. 

"Feeling  my  utter  inability  to  do  this,  I  ran 
away  and  tried  to  hide  myself  in  one  of  the 
hospital  tents.  Colonel  Greene  twice  found  me 
and  brought  me  back  to  his  piazza,  where  at  last  I 
stood  and  told  as  well  as  I  could  how  glad  I  was 
to  meet  the  brave  defenders  of  our  cause  and  how 
cons  antly  they  were  in  my  thoughts."  1 

I  fear  there  is  no  record  of  this,  her  maiden 
speech. 

Throughout  her  long  life  church-going  was  a 
comfort,  one  might  almost  say  a  delight,  to  her. 
During  this  visit  to  Washington,  where  the  weeks 
brought  so  many  sad  sights,  she  had  the  pleasure 
of  listening  on  Sunday  to  the  Rev.  William  Henry 
Channing.  Love  of  his  native  land  induced  him 
to  leave  his  pulpit  in  England  and  to  return  to 
this  country  in  her  hour  of  darkness  and  danger. 

My  mother  tells  us  that  this  nephew  of  the  great 
Dr.  Channing  was  heir  to  the  latter's  spiritual 
distinction  and  deeply  stirred  by  enthusiasm  in  a 
noble  cause.  "On  Sundays  his  voice  rang  out, 
clear  and  musical  as  a  bell,  within  the  walls  of  the 
Unitarian  church"2 — her  own  church.  Thus  she 

1  Reminiscences.  2  Ibid, 

45 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

listened  both  in  Washington  and  in  Boston,  her 
home  city,  to  men  who  were  patriots  as  well  as 
priests. 

As  she  tells  the  story,  one  sees  how  almost  all  the 
circumstances  of  her  environment  tended  to  pro- 
mote her  love  of  country  and  to  stir  the  emotions 
of  her  deeply  religious  nature.  It  was  by  no 
accident  that  the  national  song  which  bears  her 
name  is  a  hymn.  Written  at  that  time  and  amid 
those  surroundings,  it  could  not  have  been  any- 
thing else. 

Among  her  cherished  memories  of  this  visit  was 
an  interview  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  arranged  for 
the  party  by  Governor  Andrew.  "I  remember 
well  the  sad  expression  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  deep  blue 
eyes,  the  only  feature  of  his  face  which  could  be 
called  other  than  plain.  .  .  .  The  President  was 
laboring  at  this  time  under  a  terrible  pressure  of 
doubt  and  anxiety."1 

The  culminating  event  of  her  stay  in  Washing- 
ton was  the  visit  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  on 
the  occasion  of  a  review  of  troops.  As  the  writ- 
ing of  the  "Battle  Hymn"  was  the  immediate  re- 
sult of  the  memorable  experiences  of  that  day,  I 
shall  defer  their  consideration  till  the  next  chapter. 

1  Reminiscences. 
46 


"THE~BATTLE   HYMN   OF  THE   REPUBLIC' 

I  have  thus  sketched  briefly  the  train  of  events 
and  experiences  both  before  and  during  the  Civil 
War  which  led  up  to  the  composition  of  this 
national  hymn.  The  seed  had  lain  germinating 
for  years — at  the  last  it  sprang  suddenly  into 
being.  My  mother's  mind  often  worked  in  this 
way.  It  had  a  strongly  philosophic  tendency  which 
made  her  think  long  and  study  deeply.  But  she 
possessed,  also,  the  fervor  of  the  poet.  Her  men- 
tal processes  were  often  extremely  rapid,  es- 
pecially under  the  stress  of  strong  emotion.  She 
herself  thought  the  quick  action  of  her  mind  was 
due  to  her  red-haired  temperament.  The  two 
opposing  characteristics  of  her  intellect,  delibera- 
tion and  speed,  were  perhaps  the  result  of  the 
mixed  strains  of  her  blood  inherited  from  English 
and  French  ancestors. 

The  student  of  her  life  will  note  a  number  of 
sudden  inspirations,  or  visions,  as  we  may  call 
them.  Before  these  we  can  usually  trace  a  long 
period  of  meditation  and  reflection.  Her  peace 
crusade,  her  conversion  to  the  cause  of  woman 
suffrage,  her  dream  of  a  golden  time  when  men 
and  women  should  work  together  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  world,  were  all  of  this  description. 

The  "Battle  Hymn"  was  the  most  notable  of 

47 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

these  inspirations.  In  her  Recollections  of  the 
Anti-Slavery  Struggle  she  ascribes  its  composition 
to  two  causes — the  religion  of  humanity  and  the 
passion  of  patriotism.  The  former  was  a  plant  of 
slow  growth.  In  her  tribute  to  Theodore  Parker,1 
she  tells  us  how  this  developed  under  his  preach- 
ing, and  how  he  prepared  his  hearers  for  the  war  of 
blood  and  iron  that  soon  followed. 

My  mother  had  long  cherished  love  for  her 
country,  but  it  burned  more  intensely  when  the 
war  came,  bursting  into  sudden  flame  after  that 
memorable  day  with  the  soldiers. 

"When  the  war  broke  out,  the  passion  of 
patriotism  lent  its  color  to  the  religion  of  humanity 
in  my  own  mind,  as  in  many  others,  and  a 
moment  came  in  which  I  could  say: 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord! 

— and  the  echo  which  my  words  awoke  in  many 
hearts  made  me  sure  that  many  other  people 
had  seen  it  also."  2 

1  See  Chap,  ii,  page  33. 

2  Recollections  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Struggle. 


IV 


THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

"The  crimson  flower  of  battle  blooms"  in  a  single  night — The  vision 
in  the  gray  morning  twilight — It  is  written  down  in  the  half- 
darkness  on  her  husband's  official  paper  of  the  U.  S.  Sanitary 
Commission  —  How  it  was  published  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly 
and  the  price  paid  for  it — The  John  Brown  aii  derived  from  a 
camp-meeting  hymn — The  simple  story  in  her  own  words. 

OVER  and  over  again,  so  many  times  that  she 
lost  count  of  them,  was  my  mother  asked  to 
describe  the  circumstances  under  which  she  com- 
posed "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic." 
Fortunately  she  wrote  them  down,  so  that  we  are 
able  to  give  "the  simple  story"  in  her  own  words. 

The  following  account  is  taken  in  part  from  her 
Reminiscences  and  in  part  from  the  leaflet  printed 
in  honor  of  her  seventieth  birthday,  May  27,  1889, 
by  the  New  England  Woman's  Club.  She  was 
president  of  this  association  for  about  forty  years : 

"I  distinctly  remember  that  a  feeling  of  dis- 
couragement came  over  me  as  I  drew  near  the  city 
of  Washington.  I  thought  of  the  women  of  my 

49 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

acquaintance  whose  sons  or  husbands  were  fight- 
ing our  great  battle;  the  women  themselves 
serving  in  the  hospitals  or  busying  themselves 
with  the  work  of  the  Sanitary  Commission.  My 
husband,  as  already  said,  was  beyond  the  age  of 
military  service,  my  eldest  son  but  a  stripling; 
my  youngest  was  a  child  of  not  more  than  two 
years.  I  could  not  leave  my  nursery  to  follow  the 
march  of  our  armies,  neither  had  I  the  practical 
deftness  which  the  preparing  and  packing  of  san- 
itary stores  demanded.  Something  seemed  to 
say  to  me,  'You  would  be  glad  to  serve,  but  you 
cannot  help  any  one;  you  have  nothing  to  give, 
and  there  is  nothing  for  you  to  do.'  Yet,  because 
of  my  sincere  desire,  a  word  was  given  me  to  say 
which  did  strengthen  the  hearts  of  those  who 
fought  in  the  field  and  of  those  who  languished  in 
prison. 

"In  the  late  autumn  of  the  year  1861  I  visited 
the  national  capital  with  my  husband,  Dr.  Howe, 
and  a  party  of  friends,  among  whom  were  Governor 
and  Mrs.  Andrew,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  E.  P.  Whipple, 
and  my  dear  pastor,  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke. 

"The  journey  was  one  of  vivid,  even  roman- 
tic, interest.  We  were  about  to  see  the  grim 

Demon  of  War  face  to  face,  and  long  before  we 

so 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

reached  the  city  his  presence  made  itself  felt  in  the 
blaze  of  fires  along  the  road,  where  sat  or  stood 
our  pickets,  guarding  the  road  on  which  we  traveled. 

"One  day  we  drove  out  to  attend  a  review  of 
troops,  appointed  to  take  place  at  some  distance 
from  the  city.  In  the  carriage  with  me  were 
James  Freeman  Clarke  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whipple. 
The  day  was  fine,  and  everything  promised  well, 
but  a  sudden  surprise  on  the  part  of  the  enemy 
interrupted  the  proceedings  before  they  were  well 
begun.  A  small  body  of  our  men  had  been  sur- 
rounded and  cut  off  from  their  companions,  re- 
enforcements  were  sent  to  their  assistance,  and 
the  expected  pageant  was  necessarily  given  up. 
The  troops  who  were  to  have  taken  part  in  it  were 
ordered  back  to  their  quarters,  and  we  also  turned 
our  horses'  heads  homeward. 

"For  a  long  distance  the  foot  soldiers  nearly 
filled  the  road.  They  were  before  and  behind, 
and  we  were  obliged  to  drive  very  slowly.  We 
presently  began  to  sing  some  of  the  well-known 
songs  of  the  war,  and  among  them: 

'John  Brown's  body  lies  a-moldering  in  the  grave.'. 

This  seemed  to  please  the  soldiers,  who  cried, 
*  Good  for  you,'  and  themselves  took  up  the  strain. 

51 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Mr.  Clarke  said  to  me,  'You  ought  to  write  some 
new  words  to  that  tune/  I  replied  that  I  had 
often  wished  to  do  so. 

"In  spite  of  the  excitement  of  the  day  I  went  to 
bed  and  slept  as  usual,  but  awoke  next  morning  in 
the  gray  of  the  early  dawn,  and  to  my  astonish- 
ment found  that  the  wished-for  lines  were  ar- 
ranging themselves  in  my  brain.  I  lay  quite  still 
until  the  last  verse  had  completed  itself  in  my 
thoughts,  then  hastily  arose,  saying  to  myself,  'I 
shall  lose  this  if  I  don't  write  it  down  immediately.' 
I  searched  for  a  sheet  of  paper  and  an  old  stump 
of  a  pen  which  I  had  had  the  night  before  and 
began  to  scrawl  the  lines  almost  without  looking, 
as  I  had  learned  to  do  by  often  scratching  down 
verses  in  the  darkened  room  where  my  little  chil- 
dren were  sleeping.  Having  completed  this,  I 
lay  down  again  and  fell  asleep,  but  not  without 
feeling  that  something  of  importance  had  hap- 
pened to  me." 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  first  draft  of  the 
"Battle  Hymn"  was  written  on  the  back  of  a 
sheet  of  the  letter-paper  of  the  Sanitary  Com- 
mission on  which  her  husband  was  then  serving. 
Mr.  A.  J.  Bloor,  the  assistant  secretary  of  that 
body,  has  called  attention  to  this.  His  account 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

of  the  eventful  day  is  given  at  the  close  of  this 
chapter. 

My  mother  gave  the  original  draft  of  the  "Bat- 
tle Hymn"  to  her  friend,  Mrs.  Edwin  P.  Whipple, 
"who  begged  it  of  me,  years  ago."  Hence  below 
the  letter-heading: 

SANITARY  COMMISSION,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 
TREASURY  BUILDING 

1861 
we  find  the  inscription 

WILLARD'S  HOTEL 
JULIA  W.  HOWE 

TO 
CHARLOTTE  B.  WHIPPLE 

The  draft  remained  for  many  years  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  latter,  until  it  was  sent  to  Messrs. 
Houghton  &  Mifflin,  in  order  to  have  a  facsimile 
made  for  the  Reminiscences. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Whipple  were  among  the  familiar 
friends  of  our  household  in  those  days.  The 
former  achieved  brilliant  successes  both  as  a  writer 
and  as  a  lecturer.  He  was  greatly  interested  in 
the  anti-slavery  agitation;  "His  eloquent  voice 
was  raised  more  than  once  in  the  cause  of  human 

53 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

freedom."  The  younger  members  of  our  family 
remember  him  best  for  his  ready  and  delightful 
wit.  The  fact  that  he  was  decidedly  homely 
seemed  to  give  additional  point  to  his  funny  say- 
ings. Mrs.  Whipple  was  as  handsome  as  her 
husband  was  plain — sweet-tempered  and  sym- 
pathetic, yet  not  wanting  in  firmness. 

Before  publishing  the  poem  the  author  made 
a  number  of  changes,  all  of  which  are,  as  I  think, 
improvements.  The  last  verse,  which  is  an  anti- 
climax, was  cut  out  altogether. 

We  find  from  her  letters  that  she  hesitated  to 
allow  the  publication  of  the  original  draft  of  the 
"Battle  Hymn"1  because  it  contained  this  final 
verse.  She  did  not  consider  it  equal  to  the  rest  of 
the  poem.2  After  consulting  other  literary  people, 
in  her  usual  painstaking  way,  she  decided  to  have 
the  first  draft  published.3  It  will  be  noted  that 
in  the  first  verse  "vintage"  has  been  substituted 
for  "wine  press."  The  first  line  of  the  third  verse 
read  originally, 

I  have  read  a  burning  gospel  writ  in  fiery  rows  of  steel. 

1  Reminiscences,  1899. 

2 In  the  reprint  of  the  "Battle  Hymn,"  made  in  England  for  the 
use  of  the  soldiers  during  the  present  war,  this  discarded  verse  has, 
through  some  misunderstanding,  been  included. 

3  See  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Vol.  II,  Chap.  xi. 
54 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

The  later  version, 
I  have  read  a  fiery  gospel,  writ  in  burnished  rows  of  steel : 

brings  out  more  clearly  the  image  of  the  long  lines 
of  bayonets  as  they  glittered  in  her  sight  on  that 
autumn  afternoon.  In  the  fourth  verse  the  second 
line  was  somewhat  vague  in  the  first  draft, 

He  has  waked  the  earth's  dull  bosom  with  a  high  ecstatic  beat, 

The  allusion  was  probably  to  the  marching  feet 
of  the  armed  multitude.  The  new  version, 

He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  his  judgment-seat : 

is  more  direct  and  simple,  hence  accords  better 
with  the  deeply  religious  tone  of  the  poem. 
In  the  last  stanza, 

In  the  whiteness  of  the  lilies  he  was  born  across  the  sea, 

now  reads, 

In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 

A  number  of  people  have  asked  the  meaning 
of  this  line.  The  allusion  is  evidently  to  the  lilies 
carried  by  the  angel,  in  pictures  of  the  annunciation 
to  the  Virgin,  these  flowers  being  the  emblem  of 
purity. 

55 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

The  original  version  of  the  second  line  read, 
With  a  glory  in  his  bosom  that  shines  out  on  you  and  me, 
The  present  words, 

Transfigures  you  and  me, 

give  us  a  clearer  and  more  beautiful  image.  The 
passion  of  the  poem  seems,  indeed,  to  lift  on  high 
and  glorify  our  poor  humanity. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  my  mother  asso- 
ciated with  her  husband  the  line, 

He  has'  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never  call  retreat; 

Not  long  before  her  death,  new  buildings  were 
erected  at  Watertown,  Massachusetts,  for  the 
Perkins  Institution  for  the  Blind,  founded  and 
administered  for  more  than  forty  years  by  Dr. 
Howe.  His  son-in-law,  Michael  Anagnos,  ably 
continued  the  work  during  thirty  more  years. 

When  we  were  talking  about  a  suitable  inscrip- 
tion in  memory  of  the  latter,  I  suggested  to  my 
mother  the  use  of  this  line.  The  answer  was, 
"No,  that  is  for  your  father." 

The  original  draft  of  the  "Battle  Hymn"  isdated 
November,  1861;  it  was  published  in  the  Atlantic 
Monthly  for  February,  1862,  The  verses  were 

50 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

printed  on  the  first  page,  being  thus  given  the 
place  of  honor.  According  to  the  custom  of  that 
day,  no  name  was  signed  to  them.  James  T. 
Fields  was  then  editor  of  the  magazine.  My 
mother  consulted  him  with  regard  to  a  name  for 
the  poem.  It  was  he,  as  I  think,  who  christened 
it  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic."  The 
price  paid  for  it  was  five  dollars.  But  the  true 
price  of  it  was  a  very  different  thing,  not  to  be 
computed  in  terms  of  money.  It  brought  its 
author  name  and  fame  throughout  the  civilized 
world,  in  addition  to  the  love  and  honor  of  her 
countrymen.  As  she  grew  older  and  the  spiritual 
beauty  of  her  life  and  thought  shone  out  more  and 
more  clearly,  the  affection  in  which  she  was  held 
deepened  into  something  akin  to  veneration. 

The  "  Battle  Hymn  "  soon  found  its  way  from  the 
pages  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  into  the  newspapers, 
thence  to  army  hymn-books  and  broadsides.  It 
has  been  printed  over  and  over  again,  in  a  great 
variety  of  forms,  sometimes  with  the  picture  of  the 
author,  as  in  the  Perry  prints.  A  white  silk  hand- 
kerchief now  in  my  possession  bears  the  line, 

Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord 
worked  in  red  embroidery  silk. 

57 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

My  mother  was  called  upon  to  copy  the  poem 
times  without  number.  While  she  was  very  willing 
to  write  a  line  or  even,  upon  occasion,  a  verse  or  two, 
she  objected  very  decidedly,  especially  in  her  later 
years,  to  copying  the  whole  poem.  Always  re- 
sponsive to  the  requests  of  the  autograph  fiend, 
she  felt  that  so  much  should  not  be  asked  of  her. 
For  it  naturally  took  time  and  trouble  to  make  the 
fair  copy  that  came  up  to  her  standard.  It  was 
with  some  difficulty  that  I  persuaded  her  to  send 
a  promised  copy  to  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman, 
for  his  collection. 

"But  mamma,  you  said  you  would  write  it  out 
for  him." 

With  a  roguish  twinkle,  she  replied,  "Yes,  but 
I  did  not  say  when." 

However,  the  verses  were  duly  executed  and 
sent  to  the  banker-poet. 

"The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  has  been 
translated  into  Spanish,  Italian,  Armenian,  and 
doubtless  other  languages.  New  tunes  have  been 
composed  for  it,  but  they  have  failed  of  accept- 
ance. My  mother  dearly  loved  music  and  was  a 
trained  musician,  hence  her  choice  of  a  tune  was  no 
haphazard  selection.  She  wrote  her  poem  to  the 
"John  Brown"  air  and  they  cannot  be  divorced. 

58 


Franklin  B.  Sanborn  an  account  of  the  origin  of 
the  words  and  music  of  the  "John  Brown"  song. 
Mr.  Sanborn,  biographer  of  Thoreau,  John  Brown, 
and  others,  is  the  last  survivor  of  the  brilliant 
group  of  writers  belonging  to  the  golden  age  of 
New  England  literature. 

CONCORD,  MASS.,  1916. 

DEAR  MRS.  HALL — I  investigated  quite  thoroughly  the 
air  to  which  the  original  John  Brown  folk  song  was  set;  .  .  . 

I  happened  to  be  in  Boston  the  day  that  Fletcher 
Webster's  regiment  (the  12th  Mass.  Volunteers)  came  up 
from  Fort  Warren,  landed  on  Long  WTharf,  and  marched 
up  State  Street  past  the  old  State  House,  on  their  way  to 
take  the  train  for  the  Front,  in  the  summer  of  1861.  As 
they  came  along,  a  quartette,  of  which  Capt.  Howard  Jenkins, 
then  a  sergeant  in  this  regiment,  was  a  tenor  voice,  was 
singing  something  sonorous,  which  I  had  never  heard.  I 
asked  my  college  friend  Jacobsen,  of  Baltimore,  who  stood 
near  me,  "What  are  they  singing?"  He  replied,  "That  boy 
on  the  sidewalk  is  selling  copies."  I  approached  him  and 
bought  a  handbill  which,  without  the  music,  contained  the 
rude  words  of  the  John  Brown  song,  which  I  then  heard 
for  the  first  time,  but  listened  to  a  thousand  times  afterward 
during  the  progress  of  the  emancipating  Civil  War — before 
they  were  superseded  by  Mrs.  Howe's  inspired  lines,  which 
now  take  their  place  almost  everywhere. 

The  chorus  was  borne  by  the  marching  soldiers,  who  had 

5  59 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

practised  it  in  their  drills  at  the  Fort;  indeed,  it  had  been 
adapted  from  a  camp-meeting  hymn  to  a  marching  song, 
for  which  it  is  admirably  fitted,  by  the  bandmaster  of  Col. 
Webster's  regiment,  and  afterward  revised  by  Dodworth's 
military  band,  then  the  best  in  the  country.  It  was  this 
thrilling  music,  with  its  resounding  religious  chorus,  which 
Mrs.  Howe,  in  company  with  our  Massachusetts  Governor 
Andrew,  heard  near  the  Potomac,  the  next  November,  in 
the  evening  camps  that  encircled  Washington. 
Yours  ever, 

F.  B.  SANBORN. 

The  following  account  of  Mrs.  Howe's  visit  to 
Washington  and  of  the  circumstances  connected 
with  the  writing  of  the  "Battle  Hymn"  was 
written  by  Mr.  A.  J.  Bloor,  assistant  secretary  of 
the  U.  S.  Sanitary  Commission: 

"JULIA  WARD  HOWE 

"It  was  the  writer's  privilege  to  be  introduced 
early  in  the  Civi  War  to  Julia  Ward  Howe,  the 
author  of  'The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic/ 
and  now,  through  the  fullness  of  her  days,  the 
dean  of  American  literature,  though  recognized 
long  ago  as  having  employed  her  high  gift  of 
utterance  not  merely  as  the  magnet  to  attract  to 
herself  an  advantageous  celebrity,  but  para- 
mountly  as  the  instrument  for  the  righting  of 

60 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

wrong  and  the  amelioration  of  the  current  con- 
ditions of  humanity. 

"I  was  presented  to  Mrs.  Howe  by  her  husband, 
Dr.  Samuel  Gridley  Howe,  a  companion  of  Lord 
Byron  in  aiding  the  Greeks  to  throw  off  the  yoke 
of  the  Turks,  and  the  philanthropist  who  opened 
the  gates  of  hope  to  the  famous  Laura  Bridgman, 
born  blind,  deaf,  and  dumb.  Dr.  Howe  invented 
various  processes  by  which  he  rescued  her  from 
her  living  tomb,  as  he  subsequently  did  others 
born  to  similar  deprivations,  and  he  was  careful 
to  leave  on  record  such  exhaustive  and  clear  state- 
ments as  to  his  methods  that,  after  his  decease,  the 
track  was  well  illumined  wherein  later  any  well- 
doer for  other  victims  in  like  case  might  open  to 
them,  through  their  single  physical  sense  of  touch, 
the  doors  leading  to  all  earthly  knowledge  so  far 
stored  in  letters.  .  .  . 

"Dr.  Howe,  on  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War, 
consented  to  serve  as  a  member  of  the  U.  S. 
Sanitary  Commission,  a  volunteer  organization 
of  influential  Union  men,  springing  from  a  central 
association  in  New  York  City  for  the  relief  of  the 
forces  serving  in  the  war,  and  consisting  of  a  few 
Union  ladies,  one  of  whom,  Miss  Louisa  Lee 
Schuyler,  suggested  the  formation  of  a  similar  but 

61 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

larger  and  wider-spread  body  of  men,  representing 
the  Union  sentiment  of  the  whole  North,  into 
which  her  own  society  should  be  merged  as  one  of 
— so  it  turned  out — many  branches. 

"Such  a  body  was  accordingly  enrolled  and, 
with  Dr.  Bellows,  a  prominent  Unitarian  clergy- 
man of  the  day,  as  its  president,  was  appointed  a 
commission,  by  President  Lincoln,  as  a  quasi 
Bureau  of  the  War  Department,  to  complement 
the  appliances  and  work  of  the  Government's 
Medical  Bureau  and  Commissariat,  which,  at  the 
sudden  outbreak  of  the  war,  were  very  deficient. 

"Of  this  commission  I  was  the  assistant  secre- 
tary, with  headquarters  at  its  central  office  in 
Washington.  .  .  .  On  the  occasion  of  General 
McClellan's  first  great  review  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac — numbering  at  that  time  about  seventy 
thousand  men — at  Upton's  Hill,  in  Virginia,  not 
far  from  the  enemy's  lines,  Dr.  Howe  asked  me  to 
accompany  him  thither  on  horseback  to  see  it, 
which  I  did.  Mrs.  Howe  had  preceded  us,  with 
several  friends,  by  carriage,  and  it  was  there,  in 
the  midst  of  the  blare  and  glitter  and  bedizened 
simulacra  of  actual  and  abhorrent  warfare,  that 
he  did  me  the  honor  of  presenting  me  to  his  wife, 
then  known,  outside  her  private  circle,  only  as 

62 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

the  author  of  a  book  of  charming  lyrical  essays; 
but  for  years  since  recognized,  and  doubtless,  in 
the  future,  will  be  adjudged,  the  inspired  creator 
of  a  war  song  which  for  rapt  outlook,  reverent 
mysticism,  and  stateliness  of  expression,  as  well 
as  for  more  widely  appreciated  patriotic  ardor, 
has  more  claim,  in  my  estimation,  to  be  styled  a 
hymn  than  not  a  few  that  swell  the  pages  of  some 
of  our  hymnals.  I  have  always  thought  it  an 
honor  even  for  the  Sanitary  Commission  with  all 
its  noble  work  of  help  to  the  nation  in  its  straits, 
and  of  mercy  to  the  suffering,  that  Julia  Ward 
Howe's  'Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic*  should 
have  been  written  on  paper  headed  *U.  S.  Sani- 
tary Commission,'  as  may  be  seen  by  a  facsimile 
of  it  in  her  delightful  volume  of  reminiscences. 
It  seems  a  pity  that  Mrs.  Howe,  an  accomplished 
musical  composer  in  private,  as  well  as  a  poet  in 
public,  should  not  herself  have  set  the  air  for  her 
own  words  in  that  famous  utterance  of  insight, 
enthusiasm,  and  prophecy." 


THE   AKMY    TAKES   IT    UP 

Gloom  in  Libby  Prison,  July  6,  1863 — The  victory  of  Gettysburg — 
Chaplain  McCabe  sings  "  Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the 
coming  of  the  Lord" — Five  hundred  voices  take  up  the  chorus — 
The  "Battle  Hymn"  at  the  national  capital — The  great  throng 
shout,  sing,  and  weep — Abraham  Lincoln  listens  with  a  strange 
glory  on  his  face — The  army  takes  up  the  song. 

IHE  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  was  in- 
spired by  the  tremendous  issues  of  the  war, 
as  they  were  brought  vividly  to  the  poet's  mind 
by  the  sight  of  the  Union  Army. 

My  mother  had  seen  all  that  she  describes — she 
had  been  a  part  of  the  great  procession  of  "bur- 
nished rows  of  steel "  when  her  carriage  was  sur- 
rounded by  the  Army.  She  had  heard  the  sol- 
diers singing: 

"John  Brown's  body  lies  a-moldering  in  the  grave, 
His  soul  is  marching  on." 

Old  John  Brown  who  had 

Died  to  make  men  free, 
whose  spirit  the  army  knew  to  be  with  them! 

64 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

All  this  sank  deeply  into  the  heart  of  the  poet. 
The  soul  of  the  Army  took  possession  of  her. 
The  song  which  she  wrote  down  in  the  gray 
twilight  of  that  autumn  morning  voiced  the 
highest  aspirations  of  the  soldiers,  of  the  whole 
people.  Hence,  when  the  armies  of  freedom  heard 
it,  they  at  once  hailed  it  as  their  own.  My  mother 
writes  in  her  Reminiscences: 

"The  poem,  which  was  soon  after  published 
in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  was  somewhat  praised  on 
its  appearance,  but  the  vicissitudes  of  the  war 
so  engrossed  public  attention  that  small  heed  was 
taken  of  literary  matters.  I  knew,  and  was  con- 
tent to  know,  that  the  poem  soon  found  its  way 
to  the  camps,  as  I  heard  from  time  to  time  of  its 
being  sung  in  chorus  by  the  soldiers." 

This  was  the  beginning,  but  the  interest  in- 
creased as  the  "Battle  Hymn"  became  more  and 
more  widely  known,  until  it  grew  to  be  one  of  the 
leading  lyrics  of  the  war.  It  was  "sung,  chanted, 
recited,  and  used  in  exhortation  and  prayer  on 
the  eve  of  battle."  "It  was  the  word  of  the 
hour,  and  the  Union  armies  marched  to  its 
swing." 

The  "singing  chaplain" — Rev.  Charles  Card- 
well  McCabe  of  the  122d  Ohio  Regiment  of 

65 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Volunteers,  did  much  to  popularize  this  war 
lyric.  Reading  it  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  he  was 
so  charmed  with  the  lines  that  he  committed 
them  to  memory  before  arising  from  his  chair.  A 
year  or  so  later,  while  attending  the  wounded  men 
of  his  regiment,  after  the  battle  of  Winchester 
(June,  1863),  he  was  taken  prisoner  and  carried 
to  Libby  Prison.  Here  he  was  a  living  benedic- 
tion to  the  prisoners.  Deeply  religious  by  nature 
and  blest  with  a  cheerful,  happy  disposition,  he 
kept  up  the  spirits  of  his  companions,  ministering 
alike  to  their  bodily  and  spiritual  needs.  Thus  he 
begged  three  bath-tubs  for  them,  an  inestimable 
treasure,  even  though  these  had  to  serve  the  needs 
of  six  hundred  men.  Books,  too,  he  procured  for 
them,  for  the  prisoners  at  this  time  comprised  a 
notable  company  of  men — doctors,  teachers,  ed- 
itors, merchants,  lawyers.  "We  bought  books 
when  we  needed  bread,"  the  chaplain  tells  us. 

With  the  music  of  his  wonderful  voice  he  was 
wont  to  dispel  the  gloom  that  often  settled  upon 
the  inmates  of  the  prison.  Many  stories  are  told 
of  its  power,  pathos,  and  magnetism.  Whenever 
the  dwellers  in  old  Libby  felt  depression  settling 
upon  their  spirits  they  would  call  out,  "Chap- 
lain, sing  us  a  song."  Then  "The  heavy  load 

66 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

that  oppressed  us  all  seemed  as  by  magic  to  be 
lifted." 

1  July  6, 1863,  was  a  dark  day  for  the  prisoners. 
They  were  required  to  cast  lots  for  the  selection 
of  two  captains  who  were  to  be  executed.  These 
officers  were  taken  to  the  dungeon  below  and  told 
to  prepare  for  death.  Then  the  remaining  men 
huddled  together  discussing  the  situation.  The 
Confederate  forces  were  marching  north,  and  a 
terrible  battle  had  been  fought.  Grant  was  striv- 
ing to  capture  Vicksburg,  the  key  to  the  Missis- 
sippi, with  what  result  they  did  not  know.  The 
Richmond  newspapers  brought  tidings  of  disaster 
to  the  Union  armies.  In  startling  head-lines  the 
prisoners  read :  "Meade  defeated  at  Gettysburg." 
"The  Northern  Army  fleeing  to  the  mountains." 
"Grant  repulsed  at  Vicksburg."  "The  campaign 
closed  in  disaster." 

A  pall  deeper  and  darker  than  death  settled 
upon  the  Union  prisoners.  The  poor,  emaciated 
fellows  broke  down  and  cried  like  babies.  They 
lost  all  hope.  "We  had  not  enough  strength  left 
to  curse  God  and  die,"  as  one  of  them  said  later. 

"By  and  by  'Old  Ben/  a  negro  servant,  slipped 

1This  account  of  the  day  in  Libby  Prison  is  compiled  from  the 
Washington  Star  and  from  the  Life  of  Chaplain  McCabe. 

67 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

in  among  them  under  pretense  of  doing  some  work 
about  the  prison;  concealed  under  his  coat  was 
a  later  edition  of  the  paper,  on  which  the  ink 
was  scarcely  dry.  He  looked  around  upon  the 
prostrate  host,  and  called  out,  'Great  news  in  de 
papers.'  If  you  have  never  seen  a  resurrection, 
you  could  not  tell  what  happened.  We  sprang  to 
our  feet  and  snatched  the  papers  from  his  hands. 
Some  one  struck  a  light  and  held  aloft  a  dim 
candle.  By  its  light  we  read  these  head-lines: 

"'Lee  is  defeated!  His  pontoons  are  swept 
away!  The  Potomac  is  over  its  banks!  The 
whole  North  is  up  in  arms  and  sweeping  down 
upon  him!' 

"The  revulsion  of  feeling  was  almost  too  great  to 
endure.  The  boys  went  crazy  with  joy.  They 
saw  the  beginning  of  the  end."  Chaplain  McCabe 
sprang  upon  a  box  and  began  to  sing: 

"Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord — " 

and  the  five  hundred  voices  sang  the  chorus, 
"Glory,  Glory,  Hallelujah,"  as  men  never  sang 
before.  The  old  negro  rolled  upon  the  floor  in 
spasms  of  joy.  I  must  not  forget  to  add  that  the 
two  captains  were  not  executed,  after  all. 

Chaplain  McCabe  remained  in  Libby  Prison 

68 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

until  October,  1863,  when  an  attack  of  typhoid 
fever  nearly  cost  him  his  life.  As  soon  as  his 
health  would  permit,  he  resumed  his  labors  in  be- 
half of  the  Army,  this  time  as  a  delegate  of  the 
United  States  Christian  Commission.  His  deep 
religious  feeling,  of  which  patriotism  was  an  in- 
tegral part,  had  a  great  influence  among  the 
soldiers.  Wherever  he  went  he  took  the  "Battle 
Hymn"  with  him.  "He  sang  it  to  the  soldiers 
in  camp  and  field  and  hospital;  he  sang  it  in  school- 
houses  and  churches;  he  sang  it  at  camp-meetings, 
political  gatherings,  and  the  Christian  Commission 
assemblies,  and  all  the  Northland  took  it  up."1 

As  he  wrote  the  author: 

"I  have  sung  it  a  thousand  times  since  and 
shall  continue  to  sing  it  as  long  as  I  live.  No 
hymn  has  ever  stirred  the  nation's  heart  like  *  The 
Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic.'" 

I  must  not  forget  to  say  that  the  singing  chap- 
lain made  excellent  use  of  this  war  lyric  to  raise 
funds  for  the  work  among  the  soldiers.  With 
his  matchless  voice  he  sang  thousands  of  dollars 
out  of  the  people's  pockets  into  the  treasury  of 
the  Christian  Commission. 

On  February  2, 1864,  a  meeting  in  the  interests 

1  Life  of  Chaplain  McCabe. 
69 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

of  the  Christian  Commission  was  held  in  the  hall 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washington. 
Hannibal  Hamlin,  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  presided.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  present, 
and  an  immense  audience  filled  the  hall.  Various 
noted  men  spoke;  then  Chaplain  McCabe  made 
a  short  speech  and,  "by  request/  sang  the  "Bat- 
tle Hymn."  The  effect  on  the  great  throng  was 
magical.  "Men  and  women  sprang  to  their  feet 
and  wept  and  shouted  and  sang,  as  the  chaplain 
led  them  in  that  glorious  'Battle  Hymn';  they 
saw  Abraham  Lincoln's  tear-stained  face  light  up 
with  a  strange  glory  as  he  cried  out,  'Sing  it 
again!'  and  McCabe  and  all  the  multitude  sang 
it  again."  1 

Doubtless  many  Grand  Army  posts  have 
among  their  records  stories  of  the  inspiring  in- 
fluence of  this  song  in  times  of  trouble  or  danger. 
Such  an  anecdote  was  related  at  the  Western  home 
of  Mrs.  Caroline  M.  Severance,  where  Acker  Post 
had  been  invited  to  meet  my  mother: 

"Capt.  Isaac  Mahan  affectingly  described  a 
certain  march  on  a  winter  midnight  through 
eastern  Tennessee.  The  troops  had  been  for  days 
without  enough  clothing,  without  enough  food. 

1  Life  of  Chaplain  McCabe. 
70 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

They  were  cold  and  wet  that  stormy  night,  hun- 
gry, weary,  discouraged,  morose.  But  some  one 
soldier  began,  in  courageous  tones,  to  sing  'Mine 
eyes  have  seen —  Before  the  phrase  was  finished 
a  hundred  more  voices  were  heard  about  the  hope- 
ful singer.  Another  hundred  more  distant  and 
then  another  followed  until,  far  to  the  front  and 
away  to  the  rear,  above  the  splashing  tramp  of 
the  army  through  the  mud,  above  the  rattle  of 
the  horsemen,  the  rumble  of  the  guns,  the  creaking 
of  the  wagons,  and  the  shouts  of  the  drivers,  there 
echoed,  louder  and  softer,  as  the  rain  and  wind- 
gusts  varied,  the  cheerful,  dauntless  invocation 
of  the  'Battle  Hymn.'  It  was  heard  as  if  a 
heavenly  ally  were  descending  with  a  song  of 
succor,  and  thereafter  the  wet,  aching  marchers 
thought  less  that  night  of  their  wretched  selves, 
thought  more  of  their  cause,  their  families,  their 
country." 

Mr.  A.  J.  Bloor,  assistant  secretary  of  the 
United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  has  given  us 
some  vivid  pictures  of  the  soldiers  as  they  sang 
the  hymn: 

"Time  and  again,  around  the  camp-fires  scat- 
tered at  night  over  some  open  field,  when  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac — or  a  portion  of  it — was  on 

71 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

the  march,  have  I  heard  the  'Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic' — generally,  however,  the  first  verse 
only,  but  in  endless  repetition — sung  in  unison  by 
hundreds  of  voices — occasions  more  impressive 
than  that  of  any  oratorio  sung  by  any  musical 
troupe  in  some  great  assembly-room.  And  I  re- 
member how,  one  night  in  the  small  hours,  re- 
turning to  Washington  from  the  front,  by  Govern- 
ment steamer  up  the  Potomac,  with  a  party  of 
'San.  Com.'  colleagues  and  Army  officers,  mostly 
surgeons,  we  found  our  horses  awaiting  us  at  the 
Seventh  Street  dock;  and  how,  mounting  them, 
we  galloped  all  the  long  distance  to  our  quarters, 
singing  the  'Battle  Hymn' — this  time  the  whole 
of  it — at  the  top  of  our  voices." 


VI 

NOTABLE    OCCASIONS    WHERE    IT    HAS    BEEN    SUNG 

By  great  crowds  in  the  street  after  Union  victories  in  the  Civil  War — 
On  the  downfall  of  Boss  Croker — At  Memorial  Day  celebrations 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific — At  the  Chicago  convention 
where  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  indorsed 
woman  suffrage — At  Brown  University  and  Smith  College  when 
Mrs.  Howe  received  the  degree  of  LL.D. 

"fTlHE  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  has  been 
JL  sung  and  recited  thousands  of  times,  by 
all  sorts  of  people  under  widely  varying  circum- 
stances, yet  the  key-note  of  it  is  most  fitly  struck 
when  men  and  women  are  lifted  out  of  themselves 
by  the  power  of  strong  emotion.  In  times  of 
danger  and  of  thanksgiving  the  "Battle  Hymn" 
is  now,  as  it  was  in  the  'sixties,  the  fitting  vehicle 
for  the  expression  of  national  feeling.  Indeed,  it 
has  been  so  used  in  other  countries  as  well  as  in 
our  own.  In  my  mother's  journal  the  entry  often 
occurs,  "They  sang  my  'Battle  Hymn.":  Usu- 
ally she  makes  no  comment. 

73 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

It  would,  of  course,  be  impossible  and  it  might 
be  tedious  to  rehearse  all  the  notable  occasions 
where  this  national  song  has  been  given.  Yet 
many  of  them  have  been  so  full  of  interest  as  to 
demand  a  place  in  the  story  of  the  "Battle 
Hymn."  The  record  would  be  incomplete  with- 
out them.  I  give  a  few  which  will  serve  as 
samples. 

In  New  York  City  there  was  a  good  deal  of  dis- 
loyal sentiment  during  the  Civil  War.  Here  the 
draft  riots  took  place  in  the  summer  of  1863,  when 
the  guns  from  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  were  rushed 
to  the  metropolis.  Here  the  cannon,  their  wheels 
still  deeply  incrusted  with  mud,  were  drawn  up, 
a  grim  reminder  to  the  rioters  of  the  actual 
meaning  of  war.  To  these  the  sight  of  a  uniform 
was  odious.  My  husband,  David  Prescott  Hall, 
then  a  young  lad  returning  from  a  summer  camp- 
ing trip,  was  chased  through  the  streets  by  some 
excited  individuals.  As  he  had  a  knapsack  on  his 
back,  they  mistook  him  for  a  soldier. 

It  need  scarcely  be  said  that  New  York  City 
had  also  a  large  loyal  population.  In  the  early 
days  of  the  war  men  suspected  of  secession  sym- 
pathies were  visited  by  deputations  of  citizens  who 
insisted  upon  their  displaying  the  flag.  They 

74 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

found  it  wiser  to  do  so.  After  one  of  the  final 
victories  of  the  war,  perhaps  the  taking  of  Rich- 
mond, a  great  crowd  gathered  before  the  bulletin- 
board  of  a  New  York  newspaper.  Some  one 
started  to  sing  the  "Battle  Hymn"  and  the 
whole  mass  of  people  took  it  up,  "Glory,  Glory, 
Hallelujah!"  What  else  could  so  well  have  ex- 
pressed the  joy  and  thanksgiving  of  our  people, 
weary  of  four  long  years  of  fratricidal  war!  My 
husband,  who  was  present,  described  the  scene  as 
being  most  impressive. 

F.  B.  Sanborn  in  his  Early  History  of  Kansas 
tells  us  an  interesting  story  of  the  singing  of  the 
"Battle  Hymn"  on  a  very  different  occasion. 

"People  were  gathered  together  to  hear  a  ser- 
mon from  Col.  James  Montgomery,  a  man  of  un- 
daunted courage  and  a  veteran  both  of  the  Civil 
War  and  of  the  Kansas  struggle.  The  place  was 
Trading  Post,  where,  during  the  Kansas  troubles, 
some  fourteen  years  before  this  time,  a  massacre 
had  been  perpetrated.  Among  his  audience  were 
survivors  and  relatives  of  the  slain.  There  were 
present,  too,  a  score  of  men  who  had  'shouted 
amen  when  their  renowned  leader  registered  his 
vow  that  the  blood  of  the  dead  and  the  tears  of 
the  widows  and  children  should  not  be  shed  in 

6  75 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

vain.'  Montgomery  was  of  the  indomitable 
Scotch-Irish  blood,  tall  and  slender,  with  a  shaggy 
shock  of  long  black  hair  and  even  shaggier  whis- 
kers. 

"As  he  arose  to  begin  the  services  and  fixed  his 
gaze  on  the  familiar  faces  of  those  who  had  suf- 
fered and  whose  sufferings  he  had  so  fully  avenged, 
a  gleam  of  joy  and  satisfaction  seemed  to  blaze 
from  his  penetrating  eyes  and  thrilled  the  au- 
dience into  perfect  accord.  He  hesitated  a  mo- 
ment, and  then  requested  all  to  arise  and  sing 
'The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic.'  The  noble 
thought  of  that  grand  hymn  stirred  the  crowd  to 
the  deepest  depths  of  feeling.  The  text  was  in 
keeping  with  the  occasion: 

"Be  not  deceived.  God  is  not  mocked,  for 
whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also 
reap.' 

"The  discourse  was  powerful  and  impressive. 
He  reminded  his  hearers  of  his  prophecy  that  the 
remaining  years  of  slavery  could  be  numbered 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand,  and  that  he  should 
lead  a  host  of  negro  soldiers,  arrayed  in  the 
national  uniform,  in  the  redemption  of  the  country 
from  the  curse  of  slavery.  A  few  days  afterward 
the  old  Covenanter  was  dead!" 

76 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

To  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  Julia  Ward 
Howe  was  especially  dear.  On  Memorial  Day  a 
detachment  always  visits  and  decorates  her  grave, 
with  simple  but  impressive  ceremonies.  Upon 
that  of  her  husband,  which  lies  next  to  hers,  the 
Greeks  always  lay  flowers.  This  festival  of  re- 
membrance comes  only  three  days  after  my 
mother's  birthday,  May  27th.  In  1899,  when  she 
was  eighty  years  of  age,  the  ceremonies  in  Boston 
were  of  unusual  interest. 

The  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  held  a  cele- 
bration in  Boston  Theater,  Major-General  Joseph 
Wheeler,  formerly  an  officer  in  the  Confederate 
Army,  having  been  invited  to  deliver  the  address. 
Mrs.  Howe  rode  thither  in  an  open  carriage  with 
the  general's  two  daughters,  "very  pleasant  girls." 

The  Philadelphia  Press  thus  describes  the  oc- 
casion: 

"BOSTON  WARMED  UP 

"The  major  has  just  returned  from  Boston, 
where  he  was  present  at  the  Memorial  Day 
services  held  in  Boston  Theater. 

"It  was  the  real  thing.  I  never  imagined  pos- 
sible such  a  genuine  sweeping  emotion  as  when 
that  audience  began  to  sing  the  'Battle  Hymn.' 
If  Boston  was  cold,  it  was  thawed  by  the  demon- 

77 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

stration  on  Tuesday.  Myron  W.  Whitney  started 
to  sing.  He  bowed  to  a  box,  in  which  we  first 
recognized  Mrs.  Howe,  sitting  with  the  Misses 
Wheeler.  You  should  have  heard  the  yell.  We 
could  see  the  splendid  white  head  trembling; 
then  her  voice  joined  in,  as  Whitney  sang,  'In 
the  beauty  of  the  lilies,'  and  by  the  time  he  had 
reached  the  words,  'As  He  died  to  make  men 
holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free,'  the  whole 
vast  audience  was  on  its  feet,  sobbing  and  singing 
at  the  top  of  its  thousands  of  lungs.  If  volunteers 
were  really  needed  for  the  Philippines,  McKinley 
could  have  had  us  all  right  there." 

This  was  in  her  adopted  city  of  Boston,  where 
she  had  lived  for  more  than  half  a  century.  The 
Grand  Army  men  of  California  gave  her  a  similar 
reception  on  Memorial  Day,  1888. 

We  quote  extracts  from  the  San  Francisco  pa- 
pers describing  it: 

"The  Grand  Opera  House  never  contained  a 
larger  audience.  Not  only  were  all  the  chairs 
taken  up  but  every  inch  of  standing-room  was  pre- 
empted. There  were  many  persons  who  could  not 
gain  an  entrance.  .  .  .  Mr.  Dibble  next  called  the 
attention  of  the  audience  to  the  fact  that  Mrs. 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  the  author  of  'The  Battle 

78 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Hymn  of  the  Republic,'  was  among  the  guests  of 
the  evening. 

"At  this  juncture  an  enthusiastic  gentleman  in 
one  of  the  front  seats  sprang  up  and  called  for 
three  cheers  for  Mrs.  Howe.  They  were  given 
with  a  vim,  Mrs.  Howe  acknowledging  the  com- 
pliment by  rising  and  bowing.  .  .  .  The  next  event 
upon  the  program  was  the  singing  of  'The 
Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic'  by  J.  C.  Hughes. 
The  singing  was  preceded  by  a  scene  rarely  wit- 
nessed and  which  was  not  on  the  printed  pro- 
gram. General  Salomon  introduced  Mrs.  Howe 
to  the  audience  in  an  appreciative  speech. 

"A  beautiful  floral  piece  was  then  presented  to 
Mrs.  Howe,  which  she  acknowledged  in  fitting 
terms,  while  the  audience  gave  three  cheers  and 
a  tiger  for  the  author  of  '  The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic.' 

"Mrs.  Howe  advanced  to  the  footlights,  beam- 
ing with  pleasure.  She  then  said: 

"My  dear  friends,  I  cannot,  with  my  weak 
voice,  reach  this  vast  assemblage;  but  I  will  en- 
deavor to  have  some  of  you  hear  me.  I  join  in 
this  celebration  with  thrilled  and  uplifted  heart. 
I  remember  those  camp-fires,  I  remember  those 
dreadful  battles.  It  was  a  question  with  us 

79 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

women,  ''Will  our  men  prevail?  Until  they  do, 
they  will  not  come  home."  How  we  blessed  them 
when  they  did;  how  we  blessed  them  with  our 
prayers  when  they  were  on  the  battle-field.  Those 
were  times  of  sorrow;  this  is  one  of  joy.  Let  us 
thank  God  who  has  given  us  these  victories.' 

"As  Mrs.  Howe  was  about  to  resume  her  seat 
the  audience  rose  en  masse,  and  from  the  dress- 
circle  to  the  upper  gallery  rung  a  round  of  cheers. 

"The  audience  remained  standing  while  Mr. 
Hughes  sang  the  stirring  words  of  the  hymn,  and 
joined  heartily  in  the  chorus  as  by  request.  At 
the  last  chorus  Mrs.  Howe  stepped  forward  and 
joined  in  the  song,  closing  with  a  general  flutter 
of  handkerchiefs." 

My  mother  visited  the  Pacific  coast  twice  in 
the  latter  years  of  her  life,  as  her  beloved  sister, 
Mrs.  Adolphe  Mailliard,  then  lived  there.  She 
was  received  in  a  way  that  was  very  gratifying  to 
her  and  her  family. 

One  of  the  most  dearly  prized  privileges  of  a  self- 
governing  people  is  that  of  constant  grumbling 
over  the  administration  of  affairs  and  of  finding 
fault  with  our  rulers — who,  in  the  last  analysis, 
are  ourselves.  In  England  men  write  to  the  Times; 

in  America  we  write  to  many  papers  and  we  corn- 
so 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

plain  endlessly.  This  would  evidently  be  im- 
possible under  a  despotic  Government,  and  it 
sometimes  seems  as  if  we  indulged  too  freely  in 
depreciating  our  own  country  and  its  institutions. 
Yet  deep  down  in  the  hearts  of  our  people  is  a  love 
of  our  native  land  which  flames  forth  brightly  on 
great  occasions.  The  country  which  produced  the 
"Battle  Hymn"  is  not  lacking  in  true  patriotism. 
So  long  as  our  people  use  it  to  express  their  deepest 
emotions  we  need  fear  no  serious  treason  to  the 
Republic.  The  danger  of  our  frequent  fault- 
finding is  that  we  thus  allow  our  righteous  indigna- 
tion to  evaporate  in  mere  words. 

Supineness  in  politics,  an  indolence  which  permits 
unworthy  men  to  usurp  the  reins  of  government, 
is  one  of  our  great  sins  as  a  nation.  Yet  the  cor- 
rupt manipulator  who  goes  too  far  meets  an  up- 
rising of  popular  indignation  which  thoroughly 
surprises  him.  From  the  New  York  Sun  we  quote 
the  story  of  such  a  day  of  retribution. 

At  the  downfall  of  Boss  Croker  "a  throng 
gathered  in  Madison  Square.  Not  even  in  a 
Presidential  election  in  recent  years  have  there 
been  such  innumerable  hosts  as  gathered  in  front 
of  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  and  the  Hoffman  House 
last  night  to  hear  of  the  doom  of  Croker  and  his 

81 


"THE   BATTLE  ffVJSESTOF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

cronies.  Cheer  upon  cheer  ascended  when  the 
mighty  army  read  that  Low  was  far  ahead  and 
would  win  in  the  great  battle."  Some  one  struck 
up  the  "Battle  Hymn."  "All  over  the  square 
were  heard  the  thousands  singing  this  great  hymn. 
.  .  .  There  has  not  been  such  a  scene  in  New  York 
City  since  war  days." 

Among  the  notable  occasions  we  must  certainly 
count  the  unveiling  of  the  Shaw  Monument. 
Here  the  art  of  St.-Gaudens  has  preserved  in  im- 
memorial stone  the  story  of  Robert  Gould  Shaw 
and  his  colored  soldiers,  the  heroes  of  Fort  Wagner. 
The  monument  stands  just  within  old  Boston 
Common,  facing  the  State  House.  The  cere- 
monies of  dedication  included  a  procession  and  a 
meeting  in  Music  Hall,  where  Prof.  William  James 
and  Booker  Washington  made  the  principal  ad- 
dresses, and  the  "Battle  Hymn"  was  sung. 

My  mother  is  best  known  as  the  author  of  the 
"  Battle  Hymn. ' '  Soon  after  the  war  she  began  her 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  woman's  cause,  which 
eventually  won  for  her  the  great  affection  of  her 
countrywomen  as  well  as  a  reputation  extending 
to  foreign  shores.  She  was  deeply  interested  both 
in  the  club  and  in  the  suffrage  movement.  She 
lived  to  see  the  full  flowering  of  the  former  and  the 

82 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

partial  success  of  the  latter.  Despite  the  many 
weary  trials  and  delays  she  never  lost  faith  in  the 
ultimate  victory  of  the  suffrage  cause.  "  I  shall  live 
to  see  women  win  the  franchise  in  New  York  State," 
she  declared,  not  many  years  before  her  death. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  club  movement  my 
mother,  like  most  of  her  fellow-suffragists,  thought 
it  best  not  to  mingle  the  two  issues.  While  the 
more  advanced  thinkers  among  the  club  women 
believed  in  the  enfranchisement  of  their  sex,  the 
majority  did  not. 

At  last  the  two  movements — like  two  rapidly 
flowing  streams  that  have  long  been  drawing 
nearer  together — joined  in  one  mighty  river.  I 
have  often  wished  my  mother  could  have  lived  to 
see  that  wonderful  day  at  Chicago  when  the 
General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs — an  as- 
sociation comprising  more  than  one  and  a  half 
million  women — declared  themselves,  amid  cheers 
and  tears,  in  favor  of  votes  for  women.  Every 
one  was  deeply  moved;  the  delegates  embraced 
one  another,  and  the  "Battle  Hymn"  was  sung — a 
hymn  this  time  of  joyous  thanksgiving  for  the 
victory  obtained,  yet  of  solemn  dedication,  too,  to 
the  hard  labor  still  to  be  performed  before  the 
good  fight  could  be  fully  won. 

83 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

My  mother  describes  one  occasion  where  the 
"Battle  Hymn"  was  given  in  dumb  show  before 
the  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Women. 
She  was  very  much  attached  to  this  pioneer  so- 
ciety, of  which  she  was  the  president  during  many 
years.  The  association  held  annual  congresses  in 
different  parts  of  the  United  States,  the  proceed- 
ings eliciting  much  interest.  When  they  were  at 

X one  of  the  members  invited  the  society 

to  visit  a  school  for  young  girls  of  which  she  was 
the  principal. 

"After  witnessing  some  interesting  exercises  we 
assemble  in  the  large  hall,  where  a  novel  enter- 
tainment has  been  provided  for  us.  A  band  of 
twelve  young  ladies  appear  upon  the  platform. 
They  wear  the  colors  of  'Old  Glory,'  but  after  a 
new  fashion,  four  of  them  being  arrayed  from  head 
to  foot  in  red,  four  in  blue,  and  four  in  white. 
While  the  'John  Brown'  tune  is  heard  from  the 
piano,  they  proceed  to  act  in  graceful  dumb  show 
the  stanzas  of  my  'Battle  Hymn.'  How  they  did 
it  I  cannot  tell,  but  it  was  a  most  lovely  per- 
formance." l 

In  the  early  days  of  the  woman  movement  a 
hard  struggle  was  necessary  in  order  to  secure  for 

1  Reminiscences  by  Julia  Ward  Howe. 
84 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

girls  the  advantages  of  the  higher  education.  Into 
this  my  mother  threw  herself  with  her  accustomed 
zeal.  A  lifelong  student  and  lover  of  books,  she 
ardently  desired  to  secure  for  other  women  the  ad- 
vantages she  herself  so  highly  prized.  Enjoying 
robust  health,  and  accustomed  to  prolonged  mental 
labor,  she  never  doubted  the  capacity  of  her  sex 
for  serious  study.  So,  despite  the  gloomy  prog- 
nostications of  learned  doctors  (all  men),  she  and 
her  fellow-suffragists  persevered  until  the  battle 
was  won.  Thus  it  was  very  fitting  that  the  three 
institutions  which  bestowed  honorary  degrees 
upon  her — Tufts  College,  Brown  University,  and 
Smith  College — all  counted  women  among  their 
students.  Her  youngest  daughter,  Maud  Howe 
Elliott,  thus  describes  the  scene  at  Providence:1 
"On  June  16th  (1909)  Brown  University,  her 
husband's  alma  mater  and  her  grandfather's, 
conferred  upon  her  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 
.  .  .  Her  name  was  called  last.  With  the  delib- 
erate step  of  age,  she  walked  forward,  wearing  her 
son's  college  gown  over  her  white  dress,  his  mortar- 
board cap  over  her  lace  veil.  She  seemed  less 
moved  than  any  person  present;  she  could  not  see 

1  Julia  Ward  Howe.      By  Laura  E.  Richards  and  Maud  Howe 
Elliott. 

85 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

what  we  saw,  the  tiny  gallant  figure  bent  with 
four  score  and  ten  years  of  study  and  hard  labor. 
As  she  moved  between  the  girl  students  who 
stood  up  to  let  her  pass,  she  whispered:  'How  tall 
they  are!  It  seems  to  me  the  girls  are  much  taller 
than  they  used  to  be.'  Did  she  realize  how  much 
shorter  she  was  than  she  once  had  been?  I  think 
not.  Then,  her  eyes  sparkling  with  fun  while  all 
other  eyes  were  wet,  she  shook  her  hard-earned 
diploma  with  a  gay  gesture  in  the  faces  of  those 
girls,  cast  on  them  a  keen  glance  that  somehow 
was  a  challenge,  'Catch  up  with  me  if  you  can!"3 
The  band  played  the  air  of  the  "Battle  Hymn" 
and  applause  followed  her  as  she  went  back  to  her 
seat. 

"She  had  labored  long  for  the  higher  education 
of  women,  suffered  estrangement,  borne  ridicule 
for  it — the  sight  of  those  girl  graduates,  starting 
on  their  life  voyage  equipped  with  a  good  educa- 
tion, was  like  a  sudden  realization  of  a  lifelong 
dream,  uplifted  her,  gave  her  strength  for  the 
fatigues  of  the  day." 

A  similar  scene  was  enacted  in  October,  1910, 
shortly  before  her  death,  when  Smith  College  con- 
ferred the  same  degree  upon  her. 

"Opposite  the  platform,  as  if  hung  in  air,  a 

86 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

curving  gallery  was  filled  with  white-clad  girls, 
some  two  thousand  of  them;  as  she  entered  they 
rose  like  a  flock  of  doves,  and  with  them  the 
whole  audience.  They  rose  once  more  when  her 
name  was  called,  last  in  the  list  of  those  honored 
with  degrees,  and  as  she  came  forward,  the  organ 
pealed,  and  the  great  chorus  of  fresh  young  voices 
broke  out  with — 

'*  'Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord,' 
"It  was  the  last  time."  l 

1  Life  of  Julia  Ward  Hence. 


VII 


HOW  AND   WHERE   THE  AUTHOR   RECITED   IT 

The  simplicity  and  deep  earnestness  of  her  manner — Her  clear  and 
musical  voice  which  never  grew  old — How  Susan  B.  Anthony 
"mixed  up"  two  songs — Gladdened  by  the  love  and  honor  which 
it  brought  her,  Mrs.  Howe  repeats  the  "Battle  Hymn"  in  all 
parts  of  the  country  before  all  sorts  of  audiences,  small  and  great — 
Why  its  appeal  to  the  human  heart  is  universal. 

IT  may  be  imagined  that  the  heart  of  the  woman 
who  wrote  the  "Battle  Hymn"  was  greatly 
gladdened  by  the  love  and  honor  which  it  brought 
her.  She  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  beautiful  affec- 
tion shown  her  by  her  countrymen  and  country- 
women, and,  in  my  opinion,  her  happy  and  sym- 
pathetic relations  with  them  prolonged  her  life. 
She  was  glad  to  live,  despite  the  physical  weakness 
of  old  age,  because  she  knew  that  she  was  widely 
beloved  and  could  still  be  of  use.  Her  mind  re- 
mained clear  and  brilliant  to  the  very  last. 

The  honors  paid  her  she  received  with  the 
humility  that  dreads  over-praise.  In  her  journal 
she  questions  her  worthiness  to  be  made  so  much 

88 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

of,  and  hopes  to  the  end  that  she  may  be  able  to  do 
something  of  value  to  mankind. 

The  recital  of  her  "Battle  Hymn"  gave  so  much 
pleasure  that  she  was  very  willing  to  repeat  it, 
under  suitable  circumstances.  She  was  asked 
to  do  so  at  all  times  and  seasons  and  in  all  sorts  of 
places.  People  who  requested  her  to  recite  her 
war  lyric  at  the  close  of  a  lecture  did  not  realize 
the  fatigue  that  it  entailed  upon  a  person  no  longer 
young  and  already  weary  with  speaking.  Yet  I 
doubt  if  she  ever  refused,  when  it  was  possible  for 
her  to  comply  with  the  request.  Not  long  before 
her  death,  some  ladies,  calling  upon  her  at  her 
summer  home  near  Newport,  begged  her  to  recite 
then  and  there  the  "Battle  Hymn."  She  was 
loth  to  do  so,  feeling  the  solemn  words  were  not 
at  all  in  keeping  with  the  light  and  pleasant  chat 
of  a  morning  visit.  As  one  of  the  callers  was 
frankly  an  old  lady,  my  mother  at  length  con- 
sented. According  to  her  custom  when  asked  to 
recite  under  such  circumstances,  she  withdrew  for 
a  few  minutes  before  beginning. 

There  are  thousands  of  people  now  living,  I  sup- 
pose, who  have  heard  the  author's  recitation  of 
the  "Battle  Hymn."  Yet  because  there  are 
thousands  who  never  did  hear  it,  and  because 

89 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

these  things  slip  so  easily  out  of  mind,  it  is  well  to 
give  some  description  of  it  "Lest  we  forget" 

My  mother  repeated  the  verses  of  the  hymn 
simply,  yet  with  a  solemnity  that  was  all  the  more 
impressive  because  there  was  no  effort  at  elo- 
cutionary or  dramatic  effect.  Yet  there  was  suf- 
ficient variety  in  the  recitation  to  avoid  any  ap- 
proach to  monotony.  Thus  she  repeated  the  lines 

"O  be  swift,  my  soul,  to  answer  Him,  be  jubilant,  my  feet!" 

with  uplifted  hands,  a  downward  glance  at  her 
feet,  and  voice  slightly  raised.  Her  distinct  enun- 
ciation and  the  clear,  musical  tones  of  a  voice  that 
never  grew  old,  made  the  words  audible  even  in  a 
large  auditorium. 

Her  deeply  serious  manner,  corresponding  so 
well  as  it  did  with  the  solemn,  prophetic  words  of 
the  "Battle  Hymn,"  made  the  recitation  very 
impressive. 

We  saw  before  us  the  woman  who  had  been 
privileged  to  speak  the  word  for  the  hour,  in  the 
dark  days  of  her  country's  history.  It  was  like 
seeing  some  priestess  of  old  delivering  the  sacred 
oracle  to  her  people.  Though  the  message  was 
repeated  so  many  times,  it  never  lost  its  power  to 
stir  the  souls  of  those  who  heard  it. 

90 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

It  should  be  said  that  the  habit  of  speaking  very 
carefully,  my  mother  formed  early  in  life.  Having 
a  brother  who  stammered,  she  was  very  anxious 
to  avoid  that  defect  of  speech.  The  beauty  of 
her  voice  was  due  to  its  careful  training  in  the 
Italian  school  of  singing  in  her  youth.  Doubtless 
the  habit  of  public  speaking  also  tended  to  pre- 
serve it. 

She  occasionally  repeated  "The  Flag,"  a  more 
dramatic  and  more  personal  poem  than  the  "Bat- 
tle Hymn."  Her  rendering  of  it,  accordingly,  was 
more  dramatic. 

On  public  occasions  my  mother  was  often  intro- 
duced as  "The  author  of  'The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic.' "  Sometimes  the  introducer  would,  by 
mistake,  substitute  the  name  of  another  war  song, 
good  of  its  kind,  but  hardly  to  be  compared  with 
my  mother's  hymn.  She  used  to  say,  rather 
plaintively,  that  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  (the  well- 
known  suffrage  leader)  would  mix  up  the  two  songs, 
introducing  her  as  "  The  author  of  the  *  Battle  Cry  of 
Freedom.9 " 

It  was  a  joy  to  her  to  be  associated  with  the 
"Battle  Hymn,"  yet  she  sometimes  grieved  a 
little  because  this  so  greatly  overshadowed  all  her 

other  literary  productions.     She  had  labored  long 

7  91 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

and  earnestly  with  pen  and  voice,  writing  both 
prose  and  poetry  which  won  commendation  from 
her  comrades  in  the  world  of  letters.  Hence  she 
was  glad  to  be  remembered  as  the  author,  not  only 
of  her  war  lyric,  but  of  other  compositions  as  well. 

My  mother  was  asked  to  repeat  this  more  and 
more  often  as  its  fame  increased  and  as  she  herself 
became  ever  dearer  to  her  countrymen.  As  early 
as  1865  we  find  that  she  was  urged  to  recite  it  at 
Newport  at  the  close  of  her  lecture  in  Mr.  Richard 
Hunt's  studio.  Among  those  in  the  audience  was 
George  Bancroft,  the  historian,  a  prominent  figure 
in  Newport  society  of  the  olden  days.  Mr.  Ban- 
croft had  held  various  offices  under  the  Federal 
Government,  that  of  Secretary  of  the  Navy  among 
others.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  there  was 
a  good  deal  of  secession  feeling  among  the  summer 
residents  of  the  watering-place,  but  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Bancroft  were  steadfastly  loyal  to  the  Union. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  among  the  many 
places  where  its  author  recited  the  "Battle 
Hymn,"  at  least  one  city  in  the  heart  of  the  South 
is  included.  Mrs.  Howe  spent  the  winter  of  1884- 
85  in  New  Orleans,  having  been  invited  to  preside 
over  the  woman's  department  of  the  exposition 
held  there  in  that  year. 

92 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

The  experience  involved  much  hard  work,  but 
also  much  pleasure.  She  made  many  friends  in 
the  Crescent  City,  whither  she  and  I  returned 
eleven  years  later  for  a  congress  of  the  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Women.  We  were  the 
guests  of  her  old  friend,  Mrs.  King,  the  mother  of 
Grace  King,  the  novelist,  and  were  entertained  by 
mother  and  daughters  with  charming  hospitality. 

I  confess  that  it  surprised  me  when,  at  an 
afternoon  reception  in  the  King  drawing-room,  my 
mother  was  asked  to  repeat  the  "Battle  Hymn," 
and  did  so.  This  showed  us  how  much  the  old 
ill-feeling  between  North  and  South  had  died  out. 
It  demonstrated  also  the  universal  and  therefore 
non-sectional  quality  of  the  poem,  of  which  more 
will  be  said  in  the  following  chapter. 

The  "Battle  Hymn"  may  be  called  universal 
in  still  another  sense,  since  it  appeals  to  men  and 
women  of  all  religious  creeds.  When  Mrs.  Howe 
was  especially  requested  to  recite  it  before  a 
council  of  Jewish  women,  it  gave  her  "an  un- 
expected thrill  of  satisfaction."  She  was  warmly 
received  and  welcomed,  but  felt  some  anxiety 
lest  the  verse  beginning  "In  the  beauty  of  the 
lilies  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea"  might  dis- 
turb her  hearers.  The  president  assured  her, 

93 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

however,  that  there  was  nothing  hi  it  to  hurt 
their  feelings. 

My  mother  was  so  intimately  associated  with  the 
woman  movement  that  she  was  called  upon  to 
repeat  her  war  lyric  before  many  feminine  au- 
diences. We  have  spoken  of  her  interest  in 
women's  clubs.  She  was  also  interested  in  the 
patriotic  societies,  being  a  member  of  the  D.  A.  R. 
and  of  the  Colonial  Dames  of  Rhode  Island. 
One  of  the  Boston  chapters  of  the  former  is  named 
in  honor  of  the  Old  South  Meeting-house,  a  vener- 
ated landmark  of  the  city.  When  the  congrega- 
tion left  their  old  place  of  worship  and  moved  to 
the  Back  Bay,  it  required  a  tremendous  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  women  of  Boston  to  raise  the 
necessary  funds  and  to  save  the  historic  building 
from  destruction.  Here,  in  December,  1906,  the 
Old  South  Chapter  had  a  meeting  where  there 
was  "much  good  speaking."  My  mother  recited 
her  "Battle  Hymn"  and  told  them  something  of 
her  Revolutionary  ancestors.  She  remembered 
her  forebears  with  affectionate  pride  as  noble  men 
and  women  whose  example  she  strove  to  imitate. 

A  long  life  brings  its  penalties  as  well  as  its 
pleasures.  Living  to  the  age  of  nearly  ninety- 
two  years,  my  mother  survived  all  the  friends  of 

91 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

her  youth  and  most,  if  not  all,  of  her  contem- 
poraries. Hence  she  was  called  upon  to  attend 
many  funerals,  considering  this  a  duty,  in  ac- 
cordance with  old-fashioned  ideas.  A  temporary 
lameness  prevented  her  attending  the  obsequies 
of  the  poet  Longfellow,  an  early  friend  of  her  hus- 
band's, whom  she  also  had  known  well  for  many 
years.  She  was  able,  however,  to  testify  to  her 
friendship  for  the  gentle  poet  by  giving  her  services 
for  the  Longfellow  Memorial  held  at  the  Boston 
Museum.  Here  she  took  part  in  an  authors'  read- 
ing, reciting  the  "Battle  Hymn,"  as  well  as  some 
verses  composed  in  honor  of  the  poet. 

That  she  should  be  invited  to  do  so  shows  a 
great  change  in  public  opinion  since  the  early 
years  of  their  acquaintance.  In  the  'forties  and 
'fifties  it  was  not  thought  fitting  that  a  lady  should 
even  sign  her  name  to  a  poem  or  a  novel,  much 
less  read  it  in  public.  When  my  mother  pub- 
lished some  verses  in  a  volume  edited  by  Mr. 
Longfellow  in  those  early  days,  they  appeared  as 
anonymous.  By  his  advice,  her  first  book  of 
poems,  Passion  Flowers,  bore  no  name  upon  the 
title-page. 


VIII 

TRIBUTES  TO  "THE  BATTLE  HYMN" 

From  Abraham  Lincoln,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Conan  Doyle,  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson,  William  Dean  Howells,1  U.  S.  Senator  George 
F.  Hoar,  Thomas  Starr  King,  Ina  Coolbrith,  and  others — The 
"  Battle  Hymn  "  and  the  "  Marseillaise  " — What  Rudyard  Kip- 
ling said  of  it  in  "The  Light  that  Failed  " — English  reprints  dis- 
tributed among  the  soldiers  of  the  present  war. 

THE   appeal  of    'The  Battle  Hymn  of  the 
Republic"  is  so  wide  that  it  takes  in  all 
classes  of  mankind,  all,  at  least,  who  love  freedom. 

Wherever  rise  the  peoples, 

Wherever  sinks  a  throne, 
The  throbbing  heart  of  freedom 

Finds  an  answer  in  his  own. 

So  wrote  the  poet  Whittier  of  Samuel  Gridley 
Howe,  remembering  his  services  to  the  Greeks, 
to  the  Poles  and  others.  The  lines  are  equally 
true  of  his  wife,  Julia  Ward  Howe,  and  of  the 
spirit  animating  her  war  lyric.  Although  written 
in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  civil  war  that  was 
ever  fought  and  won,  there  is  no  word  of  North 

1  See  Chapter  IX. 
96 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

or  South,  no  appeal  to  local  pride  or  patriotism, 
no  word  of  sectional  strife  or  bitterness.  The  God 
to  whom  appeal  is  made  is  the  God  of  freedom. 
The  enemy  to  be  overcome,  the  serpent  who  is  to 
be  crushed  beneath  the  heel  of  the  hero,  is  slavery. 

It  is  amusing  and  yet  sad  to  find  that  some 
literal  souls  have  fancied  that  my  mother  intended 
to  designate  the  Southerners  by  "the  grapes  of 
wrath."  Needless  to  say  that  the  writer  in- 
tended no  such  narrow  and  prosaic  meaning. 

The  "Battle  Hymn"  may  well  be  compared  to 
the  "Marseillaise."  The  man  is  to  be  pitied  who 
can  hear  either  of  them  without  a  thrill  of  an- 
swering emotion.  Both  have  the  power  to  move 
their  hearers  profoundly,  yet  they  are  as  dif- 
ferent as  the  two  nationalities  which  gave  them 
birth.  The  French  national  hymn  appeals  to  us 
by  its  wonderfully  stirring  music  more  than  by  the 
words.  We  can  imagine  how  the  latter  aroused 
to  a  frenzy  of  feeling  the  men  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution, when  they  rose  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of 
centuries  of  oppression  and  misrule.  Feudalism 
perished  in  France  to  the  fiery  music  of  the 
"Marseillaise."  Slavery  died  in  America  to  the 
old  "John  Brown"  tune,  as  slow  and  steadfast  in 
movement  as  the  Northern  race  who  sang  it. 

97 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

In  our  war  lyric  we  seem  to  hear  an  echo 
of  the  old  cry,  "The  sword  of  the  Lord  and  of 
Gideon."  Yet  we  did  not  fully  recognize  its 
tremendous  power  until  Kipling  christened  it 
"  The  terrible  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic." 

In  the  closing  scene  of  The  Light  that  Failed 1 
we  are  shown  a  group  of  English  newspaper  corre- 
spondents about  to  start  for  a  war  in  the  Soudan. 
They  are  met  together  for  a  last  evening  of  song 
and  merrymaking,  yet  one  of  their  number  "by 
the  instinct  of  association  began  to  hum  the  ter- 
rible Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic.  Man  after 
man  caught  it  up — it  was  a  tune  they  knew  well, 
till  the  windows  shook  to  the  clang,  the  Nilghai's 
deep  voice  leading: 

"'Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord."' 

Sir  A.  Conan  Doyle  pays  a  similar  tribute  to 
its  power  in  Through  the  Magic  Door: 

"Take  the  songs  which  they  sang  during  the 
most  bloody  war  which  the  Anglo-Celtic  race  has 
ever  waged — the  only  war  in  which  it  could  have 
been  said  that  they  were  stretched  to  their  utter- 
most and  showed  their  true  form  ...  all  had  a 

1  In  the  later  editions  of  the  novel  another  scene  is  substituted  for 
this. 

98 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

playful  humor  running  through  them.  Only  one 
exception  do  I  know,  and  that  is  the  most  tre- 
mendous war  song  I  can  recall;  even  an  outsider 
in  time  of  peace  can  hardly  read  it  without  emo- 
tion. I  mean,  of  course,  Julia  Ward  Howe's  war 
song  of  the  Republic,  with  the  choral  opening  line, 

'Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  coming  of  the  Lord.' 

If  that  were  ever  sung  upon  a  battle-field  the 
effect  must  have  been  terrific." 

During  the  present  war  in  Europe,  an  English 
lady  has  had  a  large  number  of  copies  of  the 
"Hymn"  printed  and  distributed,  through  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  to  the  soldiers. 
They  contain  the  following  explanation:  "This 
magnificent  *  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic'  was 
written  in  1861  by  a  famous  American  lady, 
Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  for  the  Army  of  the 
Northern  States  of  America,  which  were  then 
engaged  in  a  'Holy  War*  to  rid  the  South  of 
slavery  and  to  preserve  the  Union  of  the  States. 
It  is  said  to  have  done  more  to  awaken  the  spirit 
of  patriotism  and  to  have  inspired  more  deeds  of 
heroism  than  any  other  event  of  the  American 
Civil  War." 

It  is  pleasant  and  heartening  to  read  these 

99 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

tributes  of  praise  from  distinguished  Englishmen. 
That  our  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  should 
so  strongly  appeal  to  them  shows  us  the  essential 
unity  of  the  two  great  branches  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race,  even  though  oceans  roll  between 
Great  Britain  and  America. 

The  strange  glory  that  came  over  the  face  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  and  the  tears  he  shed  on  hear- 
ing the  "Battle  Hymn"  will  always  be,  for  his 
countrymen,  the  most  precious  tribute  to  its  power. 

"The  chaplain  afterward  stated  that  in  his 
conversation  with  Mr.  Lincoln  at  his  reception,  the 
President  said  to  him,  'Take  it  all  in  all,  the 
song  and  the  singing,  that  was  the  best  I  ever 
heard.'"1 

To  the  steadfast  and  courageous  soul  of  another 
great  American,  who  also  has  held  the  high  office 
of  President  of  these  United  States,  Theodore 
Roosevelt,  this  war  hymn  strongly  appealed.  His 
book,  Fear  God  and  Take  Your  Own  Part,  is 
prefaced  by  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic" 
and  by  the  following  dedication: 

"This  book  is  dedicated  to  the  memory  of 
JULIA  WARD  HOWE 

1  Life  of  Chaplain  McCabe — "the  singing  chaplain." 
100 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

because  in  the  vital  matters  fundamentally  af- 
fecting the  life  of  the  Republic  she  was  as  good  a 
citizen  of  the  Republic  as  Washington  and  Lincoln 
themselves.  She  was  in  the  highest  sense  a  good 
wife  and  a  good  mother,  and  therefore  she  fulfilled 
the  primary  law  of  our  being.  She  brought  up 
with  devoted  care  and  wisdom  her  sons  and  her 
daughters.  At  the  same  time  she  fulfilled  her 
full  duty  to  the  commonwealth  from  the  public 
standpoint.  She  preached  righteousness  and  she 
practised  righteousness.  She  sought  the  peace 
that  comes  as  the  handmaiden  of  well-doing. 
She  preached  that  stern  and  lofty  courage  of  soul 
which  shrinks  neither  from  war  nor  from  any 
other  form  of  suffering  and  hardship  and  danger 
if  it  is  only  thereby  that  justice  can  be  served. 
She  embodied  that  trait  more  essential  than  any 
other  in  the  make-up  of  the  men  and  women  of 
this  Republic — the  valor  of  righteousness." 

In  the  letter  given  below,  Hon.  George  F.  Hoar, 
United  States  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  com- 
pares "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  with 
the  "Marseillaise"  and  with  the  "British  Na- 
tional Anthem." 

WORCESTER,  MASS.,  May  22,  1903. 

I  was  thinking,  just  as  I  got  your  letter  asking  me  to  send 
a  greeting  to  your  meeting  and  to  Mrs.  Howe,  of  the  great 

101 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

power,  in  framing  the  character  of  nations,  of  their  National 
Anthems.  Fletcher  of  Saltoun  said,  as  every  child  knows, 
"Let  me  make  the  songs  of  a  people,  and  I  care  not  who 
make  their  laws."  No  single  influence  has  had  so  much  to 
do  with  shaping  the  destiny  of  a  nation,  as  nothing  more 
surely  expresses  national  character,  than  what  is  known 
as  the  National  Anthem.  France  adopted  for  hers  the 
"Marseillaise."  Its  stirring  appeal 

Sons  of  France,  awake  to  glory! 

led  the  youth  of  France  to  march  through  Europe,  subduing 
kingdoms  and  overthrowing  dynasties,  till  "forty  centuries 
looked  down  on  them  from  the  pyramids."  At  last  the 
ambition  of  France  perished  and  came  to  grief,  as  every 
unholy  ambition  is  destined  to  perish  and  come  to  grief, 
and  her  great  Emperor  died  in  exile  at  St.  Helena. 

Is  there  anything  more  cheap  and  vulgar  than  the  National 
Anthem  of  our  English  brethren,  "God  Save  the  King"? 

O  Lord  our  God,  arise! 
Scatter  his  enemies 

And  make  them  fall. 
Confound  their  politics, 
Frustrate  their  knavish  tricks; 
On  him  our  hopes  we  fix; 

God  save  us  all! 

England,  I  hope,  knows  better  now.    But  she  has  acted 
on  that  motto  for  a  thousand  years. 
New  England's  Anthem, 

The  breaking  waves  dashed  high, 

one  of  the  noblest  poems  in  all  literature,  was  written  by  a 

woman. 

102 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

We  waited  eighty  years  for  our  American  National  Anthem. 
At  last  God  inspired  an  illustrious  and  noble  woman  to  utter 
in  undying  verse  the  thought  which  we  hope  is  forever  to 
animate  the  soldier  of  the  Republic. 

In  the  beauty  of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea, 
With  a  glory  in  His  bosom  which  transfigures  you  and  me; 
As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free, 
While  God  is  marching  on! 

Julia  Ward  Howe  cannot  yet  vote  in  America.  But  her 
words  will  be  an  inspiration  to  the  youth  of  America  on  many 
a  hard-fought  field  for  liberty  many  a  century  after  her  suc- 
cessors will  vote. 

I  am  faithfully  yours, 

GEORGE  F.  HOAR. 
Miss  ALICE  STONE  BLACKWELL. 

In  the  journals  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  we 
find  this  tribute  to  his  friend,  Julia  Ward  Howe: 

"I  honour  the  author  of  the  'Battle  Hymn'  and 
of  'The  Flag.'  She  was  born  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  I  could  well  wish  she  were  a  native  of 
Massachusetts.  We  have  had  no  such  poetess  in 
New  England." 

The  little  bit  of  State  pride  voiced  in  the  regret 
that  my  mother  was  not  a  native  of  the  old  Bay 
State,  surprises  us  in  a  man  of  such  wide  sympa- 
thies as  Mr.  Emerson.  In  Whittier's  early  poems 
also  the  local  feeling  is  strongly  pronounced.  We 
should  remember,  however,  that  during  the  nine- 

103 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

teenth  century  a  good  deal  of  sectional  feeling 
still  existed  in  the  different  States.  The  twentieth 
century  finds  us  more  closely  united  as  a  people 
than  we  have  ever  been  before. 

Edmund  Clarence  Stedman  happily  charac- 
terizes the  war  hymn  in  the  following  passage. 
It  occurs  in  a  letter  to  me,  asking  that  my  mother 
would  copy  it  for  him. 

"I  can  well  understand  what  a  Frankenstein's 
monster  such  a  creation  grows  to  be — such  a  poem 
as  the  'Battle  Hymn'  when  it  has  become  the 
sacred  scroll  of  millions,  each  one  of  whom  would 
fain  obtain  a  copy  of  it."  *• 

Those  who  have  visited  the  White  Mountains 
will  remember  that  one  of  the  peaks  is  called 
"Starr  King."  It  was  named  for  Thomas  Starr 
King,  a  noted  Unitarian  preacher  in  the  middle 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  Shortly  before  the 
Civil  War  he  accepted  a  call  to  San  Francisco. 
In  addition  to  officiating  in  the  church  there  he 
soon  took  upon  his  shoulders  a  task  that  was  too 
heavy  for  his  somewhat  frail  physique.  This  was 
nothing  less  than  persuading  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia to  remain  loyal  to  the  Union.  There  was  a 
good  deal  of  secession  sentiment  on  the  Pacific 

1  Julia  Ward  Howe.    Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
104 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

coast  in  1861.  Starr  King  and  his  fellow-Union- 
ists succeeded  in  their  undertaking,  but  he  paid 
the  penalty  of  overwork  with  his  life.  Hence  his 
memory  is  beloved  and  revered  on  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific  as  well  as  on  those  of  the  Atlantic. 
One  can  imagine  what  the  "Battle  Hymn"  must 
have  meant  to  him,  weary  as  he  was  with  his 
strenuous  labors.  He  pronounced  it  "a  miracu- 
lously perfect  poem." 

Another  "Spray  of  Western  Pine"  was  con- 
tributed to  the  garland  of  praise  by  Ina  Coolbrith, 
one  of  the  last  survivors  of  the  golden  age  of 
California  literature. 

JULIA  WARD  HOWE 

When  with  the  awful  lightning  of  His  glance, 
Jehovah,  thro'  the  mighty  walls  of  sea 
His  people  led  from  their  long  bondage  free, — 
A  Woman's  hand,  too  light  to  lift  the  lance, 
Miriam,  the  Prophetess,  with  song  and  dance, 
With  timbrel,  and  with  harp  and  psaltery, 
Struck  the  proud  notes  of  triumphs  yet  to  be, 
And  voiced  her  Israel's  deliverance. 

So  in  our  own  dear  Land,  in  strife  to  save 
Another  race  oppressed,  when  light  grew  dim, 
And  the  Red  Sea  of  blood  loomed  fatefully 
To  overwhelm,  the  God  of  freedom  gave 
Thro'  Woman's  lips  His  sacred  battle  hymn 
That  rang  thro'  combat  on  to  victory! 
105 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

When  memorial  services  were  held  in  honor  of 
my  mother,  Boston's  great  Symphony  Hall  was 
crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity.  Many  were  the 
beautiful  tributes  to  her  given  by  men  and  women 
of  national  reputation.  None,  however,  equaled 
in  heartfelt  eloquence  the  speech  of  Lewis,  the 
distinguished  negro  lawyer.  As  he  poured  out 
the  gratitude  of  his  race  to  the  woman  who  had 
written  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic,"  I 
suddenly  realized  for  the  first  time  what  the  words 
meant  to  the  colored  people. 

As  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  let  us  die  to  make  men  free. 

"To  make  us,  black  men  and  black  women,  free!" 
The  appeal  was  to  the  white  men  of  our  country, 
bidding  them  share  the  freedom  they  so  dearly 
prized  with  the  despised  slave.  And  this  triumph- 
ant gospel  of  liberty  with  its  stirring  chorus  of 
"Glory,  glory,  hallelujah"  was  sung  wherever  the 
Northern  army  went.  It  was  the  first  proclama- 
tion of  emancipation.  If  it  moves  us,  how  must 
it  have  affected  the  people  to  whom  it  was  a 
prophecy  of  the  longed-for  deliverance  from 
bondage. 


IX 


MRS.    HOWE  S    LESSER    POEMS    OF    THE    CIVIL    WAR 

Her  poetic  tribute  to  Frederick  Douglass — "Left  Behind,"  "Our 
Orders,"  "April  19" — "The  Flag"  followed  the  second  battle 
of  Bull  Run — "The  Secesh"  in  the  Newport  churches — "The 
First  Martyr,"  "Our  Country,"  "Harvard  Student's  Song," 
"Return" — How  "  Our  Country  "  lost  its  musical  setting — "The 
Parricide  "  written  on  the  day  of  Lincoln's  funeral  to  express 
her  reverence. 

MY  mother's  natural  mode  of  expressing  her- 
self was  by  poetry  rather  than  by  prose. 
She  wrote  verses  from  her  earliest  years  up  to  the 
time  of  her  death.  It  is  true  that  some  of  her 
best  work  took  the  form  of  prose  in  her  essays, 
lectures,  and  speeches,1  yet  whenever  her  feelings 
were  deeply  moved  she  turned  to  verse  as  the  fit- 
test vehicle  for  her  use. 

We  have  seen  that  she  began  to  write  poems 
protesting  against  human  slavery  at  an  early 
period  of  her  career.  Thus  her  first  published 

1  Mr.  Howells  writes  in  his  Literary  Boston   Thirty  Years  Ago: 
"I  heard  Mrs.  Howe  speak  in  public  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  she 
made  one  of  the  best  speeches  I  had  ever  heard." 
8  107 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

"On  the  Death  of  the  Slave  Lewis."  In  Words 
for  the  Hour  we  find  several  poems  dealing  with 
slavery,  the  struggle  in  Kansas,  the  attack  on 
Sumner,  and  kindred  subjects.  The  titles  of  these 
and  some  quotations  from  them  are  given  in 
Chapter  I.  The  verses  on  "Tremont  Temple" 
contain  tributes  to  Sumner  and  Frederick  Doug- 
lass, the  negro  orator.  The  first  two  are  as  follows : 
volume,  Passion  Flowers  (1853),  contained  verses 

Two  figures  fill  this  temple  to  my  sight, 

Whoe'er  shall  speak,  their  forms  behind  him  stand; 

One  has  the  beauty  of  our  Northern  blood, 
And  wields  Jove's  thunder  in  his  lifted  hand. 

The  other  wears  the  solemn  hue  of  Night 
Drawn  darker  in  the  blazonry  of  pain, 

Blotting  the  gaslight's  mimic  day,  he  slings 
A  dangerous  weapon,  too,  a  broken  chain. 

When  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  she  poured  forth 
the  feelings  that  so  deeply  moved  her  in  a  number 
of  poems.  "The  Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic" 
is  the  best  known  of  these,  as  it  deserves  to  be. 
The  others,  however,  while  varying  as  to  merit, 
show  the  same  patriotism,  indignation  against 
wrong,  and  elevation  of  spirit.  The  woman's  ten- 
derness of  heart  breathes  through  them,  too,  as 
in  the  story  of  the  dying  soldier: 

108 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

LEFT  BEHIND 

The  foe  is  retreating,  the  field  is  clear; 
My  thoughts  fly  like  lightning,  my  steps  stay  here; 
I'm  bleeding  to  faintness,  no  help  is  near: 
What,  ho!  comrades;  what,  ho! 

The  battle  was  deadly,  the  shots  fell  thick; 
We  leaped  from  our  trenches,  and  charged  them  quick; 
I  knew  not  my  wound  till  my  heart  grew  sick: 
So  there,  comrades;   so  there. 

We  charged  the  left  column,  that  broke  and  fled; 
Poured  powder  for  powder,  and  lead  for  lead: 
So  they  must  surrender,  what  matter  who's  dead? 
Who  cares,  comrades?   who  cares? 

My  soul  rises  up  on  the  wings  of  the  slain, 
A  triumph  thrills  through  me  that  quiets  the  pain: 
If  it  were  yet  to  do,  I  would  do  it  again! 
Farewell,  comrades,  farewell! 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  first  blood  shed 
in  the  Civil  War  was  in  Baltimore.  There  the 
Massachusetts  troops,  while  on  their  way  to  de- 
fend the  national  capital,  were  attacked  by  "Plug- 
Uglies"  and  several  soldiers  were  killed.  My 
mother  thus  describes  the  funeral  in  Boston;1 

1  Reminiscences,  p.  261. 
109 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

"We  were  present  when  these  bodies  were  re- 
ceived at  King's  Chapel  burial-ground,  and  could 
easily  see  how  deeply  the  Governor  was  moved 
at  the  sad  sight  of  the  coffins  draped  with  the 
national  flag.  This  occasion  drew  from  me  the 
poem: 

"OUR  ORDERS 

"Weave  no  more  silks,  ye  Lyons  Looms; 

To  deck  our  girls  for  gay  delights! 

The  crimson  flower  of  battle  blooms, 

And  solemn  marches  fill  the  night. 

"Weave  but  the  flag  whose  bars  to-day 
Drooped  heavy  o'er  our  early  dead, 
And  homely  garments,  coarse  and  gray, 
For  orphans  that  must  earn  their  bread!" 

(We  give  the  first  two  of  the  six  verses.) 

Other  verses  published  in  Later  Lyrics  under  the 
title  "April  19"  commemorate  the  same  event. 
They  were  evidently  written  in  the  first  heat  of 
indignation  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion, 
yet  her  righteous  wrath  always  gave  way  to  a 
second  thought,  tenderer  and  more  merciful  than 
the  first.  We  see  this  in  the  last  verse  of  the 
"Battle  Hymn"  and  in  various  other  poems  of 

hers.     The  opening  verses  of  "April  19"  are: 

110 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

A  spasm  o'er  my  heart 

Sweeps  like  a  burning  flood; 
A  sentence  rings  upon  mine  ears, 

Avenge  the  guiltless  blood! 

Sit  not  in  health  and  ease, 

Nor  reckon  loss  nor  gain, 
When  men  who  bear  our  Country's  flag 

Are  set  upon  and  slain. 

Of  her  "Poems  of  the  War"  "The  Flag"  ranks 
second  in  popular  esteem  and  has  a  place  in  many 
anthologies.  She  thus  describes  the  circumstances 
under  which  it  was  composed:1 

"Even  in  gay  Newport  there  were  sad  rever- 
berations of  the  strife.  I  shall  never  forget  an 
afternoon  on  which  I  drove  into  town  with  my 
son,  by  this  time  a  lad  of  fourteen,  and  found 
the  main  street  lined  with  carriages,  and  the  car- 
riages filled  with  white-faced  people,  intent  on  I 
knew  not  what.  Meeting  a  friend,  I  asked: 
*  Why  are  these  people  here?  What  are  they  wait- 
ing for  and  why  do  they  look  as  they  do?' 

"They  are  waiting  for  the  mail.  Don't  you 
know  that  we  have  had  a  dreadful  reverse?'  Alas! 
this  was  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run.  I  have 

1  Reminiscences,  p.  258. 
Ill 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

made  some  record  of  it  in  a  poem  entitled  'The 
Flag,'  which    I  dare  mention  here  because  Mr. 
Emerson,  on  hearing  it,  said  to  me,  'I  like  the 
architecture  of  that  poem.' " 
The  opening  verse  is  as  follows: 

There's  a  flag  hangs  over  my  threshold,  whose  folds  are 

more  dear  to  me 

Than  the  blood  that  thrills  in  my  bosom  its  earnest  of  liberty; 
And  dear  are  the  stars  it  harbors  in  its  sunny  field  of  blue 
As  the  hope  of  a  further  heaven,  that  lights  all  our  dim 

lives  through. 

Before  the  war,  Newport  had  been  a  favorite 
resort  for  Southerners.  During  the  summer  of 
1861  a  number  were  still  there,  and  it  must  be 
confessed  some  of  them  behaved  with  very  little 
tact.  According  to  reports  current  at  the  time, 
these  individuals  carried  politics  inside  the  church 
doors.  When  the  prayer  for  the  President  of  the 
United  States  was  read,  they  arose  from  their  knees 
in  order  to  show  their  disapproval.  At  its  con- 
clusion they  again  knelt.  Women  would  draw 
aside  the  voluminous  skirts  then  in  fashion,  to 
prevent  their  coming  in  contact  with  the  United 
States  flag.  I  have  always  fancied  that  the  lines 
in  "The  Flag," 

112 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Salute  the  flag  in  its  virtue,  or  pass  on  where  others  rule, 

were  inspired  by  this  behavior  of  "The  Secesh," 
as  we  then  called  them.  Some  of  these  persons, 
although  belonging  to  good  society,  had  the  bad 
taste  to  boast  in  our  presence  of  how  the  South 
was  going  to  "whip"  the  North.  At  a  certain 
picnic  among  the  Paradise  Rocks,  my  mother  re-' 
solved  to  give  these  people  a  lesson  in  patriotism. 
One  of  our  number,  a  quiet,  elderly  lady,  was 
selected  to  act  as  America,  the  queen  of  the  oc- 
casion. She  was  crowned  with  flowers,  and  we  all 
saluted  her  with  patriotic  songs. 

"The  First  Martyr"  tells  the  story  of  a  visit 
to  the  wife  of  John  Brown  before  the  latter's 
execution: 

My  five-years'  darling,  on  my  knee, 
Chattered  and  toyed  and  laughed  with  me; 
"Now  tell  me,  mother  mine,"  quoth  she, 

"Where  you  went  i'  the  afternoon." 
"Alas!    my  pretty  little  life, 
I  went  to  see  a  sorrowing  wife, 

Who  will  be  widowed  soon." 

Child!    It  is  fit  that  thou  shouldst  weep; 
The  very  babe  unborn  would  leap 
To  rescue  such  as  he. 
113 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

"Our  Country"  contains  no  word  about  the 
civil  strife,  although  it  is  classed  with  "Poems  of 
the  War"  in  her  volume  entitled  Later  Lyrics. 
A  prize  was  offered  for  a  national  song  while  the 
war  was  in  progress,  and  Mrs.  Howe  sent  in  this 
poem,  Otto  Dresel  composing  the  music.  Mr. 
Dresel  was  a  prominent  figure  in  the  musical  world 
of  Boston  for  many  years  and  wrote  a  number  of 
charming  songs. 

The  prize  which  had  been  offered  for  the  national 
song  was  never  awarded,  if  I  remember  aright,  and 
Mr.  Dresel  decided  to  use  the  tune  he  had  com- 
posed, for  the  "Army  Hymn"  of  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes.  This  was  "superbly  sung  by  L.  C. 
Campbell,  assisted  by  the  choir  and  band"  at 
the  opening  exercises  of  the  Great  Metropolitan 
Fair  held  in  New  York  during  the  Civil  War,  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Sanitary  Commission. 

"Our  Country"  thus  lost  its  musical  setting,  to 
my  mother's  regret. 

OUR  COUNTRY 

On  primal  rocks  she  wrote  her  name, 
Her  towers  were  reared  on  holy  graves, 

The  golden  seed  that  bore  her  came 

Swift-winged  with  prayer  o'er  ocean  waves. 
114 


'THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

The  Forest  bowed  his  solemn  crest, 

And  open  flung  his  sylvan  doors; 
Meek  Rivers  led  the  appointed  Guest 

To  clasp  the  wide-embracing  shores; 

Till,  fold  by  fold,  the  broidered  Land 
To  swell  her  virgin  vestments  grew, 

While  Sages,  strong  in  heart  and  hand, 
Her  virtue's  fiery  girdle  drew. 

O  Exile  of  the  wrath  of  Kings! 

O  Pilgrim  Ark  of  Liberty! 
The  refuge  of  divinest  things, 

Their  record  must  abide  in  thee. 

First  in  the  glories  of  thy  front 

Let  the  crown  jewel  Truth  be  found; 

Thy  right  hand  fling  with  generous  wont 
Love's  happy  chain  to  furthest  bound. 

Let  Justice  with  the  faultless  scales 
Hold  fast  the  worship  of  thy  sons, 

Thy  commerce  spread  her  shining  sails 
Where  no  dark  tide  of  rapine  runs. 

So  link  thy  ways  to  those  of  God, 
So  follow  firm  the  heavenly  laws, 

That  stars  may  greet  thee,  warrior-browed, 
And  storm-sped  angels  hail  thy  cause. 
115 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

O  Land,  the  measure  of  our  prayers, 
Hope  of  the  world,  in  grief  and  wrong! 

Be  thine  the  blessing  of  the  years, 
The  gift  of  faith,  the  crown  of  song. 

The  news  of  Lincoln's  assassination  dealt  a 
stunning  blow  to  our  people.  The  rejoicings  over 
the  end  of  the  Civil  War  were  suddenly  changed 
to  deep  sorrow,  indignation,  and  fear.  How 
widely  the  conspiracy  spread  we  did  not  know. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  other  officers  of  the 
Federal  Government  were  attacked.  My  mother 
wrote  that  nothing  since  the  death  of  her  little 
boy  1  had  given  her  so  much  personal  pain.  As 
usual,  she  sought  relief  for  her  feelings  in  verse. 
"The  Parricide,"  written  on  the  day  of  Lincoln's 
funeral,  expresses  her  love  and  reverence  for  the 
great  man,  her  horror  of  the  "Fair  assassin, 
murder — white,"  whom  she  bids: 

With  thy  serpent  speed  avoid 

Each  unsullied  household  light, 
Every  conscience  unalloyed. 

As  usual,  compassion  followed  anger.  "Pardon," 
written  a  few  days  later,  after  the  death  of  Wilkes 
Booth,  is  the  better  poem  of  the  two. 

1  Samuel  Gridley  Howe,  Jr.,  who  died  in  May,  1863,  aged  three 
and  a  half  years. 

116 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 
PARDON 

WILKES  BOOTH — APRIL  26,  1865 

Pains  the  sharp  sentence  the  heart  in  whose  wrath  it  was 
uttered, 

Now  thou  art  cold; 

Vengeance,  the  headlong,  and  Justice,  with  purpose  close 
muttered, 

Loosen  then*  hold. 

Death  brings  atonement;    he  did  that  whereof  ye  accuse 
him, — 

Murder  accurst; 
But,  from  that  crisis  of  crime  in  which  Satan  did  lose  him, 

Suffered  the  worst. 

Back  to  the  cross,  where  the  Saviour  uplifted  in  dying 

Bade  all  souls  live, 
Turns  the  reft  bosom  of  Nature,  his  mother,  low  sighing, 

Greatest,  forgive! 

On  July  21,  1865,  Harvard  University  held 
memorial  exercises  in  honor  of  her  sons  who  had 
given  their  lives  for  their  country.  The  living 
graduates  of  that  day  numbered  only  twenty -four 
hundred,  including  the  aged,  sick,  and  absent. 
Of  these  more  than  five  hundred  went  out  to  fight 
in  behalf  of  the  Union,  many  of  them  to  return  no 
more.  Their  names  may  be  seen  engraved  on  the 

117 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

marble  tablets  of  Memorial  Hall,  Cambridge,  a 
daily  lesson  in  patriotism  to  the  undergraduates 
who  frequent  it.  Full  of  fun  and  nonsense  as  the 
latter  are,  they  will  permit  no  disrespect  to  the 
memory  of  the  heroes  of  the  Civil  War.  If 
visitors  enter  without  removing  their  hats,  an  in- 
stant clamor  arises,  forcing  them  to  do  so. 

On  this  Commencement  day  of  1865  a  notable 
assemblage  gathered  at  Harvard.  In  addition  to 
other  distinguished  people  there  were  present,  as 
Governor  Andrew  said  in  his  address,  a  "cloud  of 
living  witnesses  who  have  come  back  laden  with 
glory  from  the  fields  where  their  comrades  fell." 
Phillips  Brooks  made  a  prayer,  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson  and  others  spoke.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  Rev.  Charles  T.  Brooks,  James  Russell 
Lowell,  his  brother  Robert,  John  S.  Dwight,  and 
Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  contributed  poems.  The 
verses  of  the  latter  were  read  by  her  friend,  Mr. 
Samuel  Eliot.  The  opening  ones  are  as  follows : 

RETURN 

They  are  coming,  oh  my  Brothers,  they  are  coming! 

From  the  formless  distance  creeps  the  growing  sound, 
Like  a  rill-fed  forest,  in  whose  rapid  summing, 

Stream  doth  follow  stream,  till  waves  of  joy  abound. 
118 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

These  have  languished  in  the  shadow  of  the  prison, 
Long  with  hunger  pains  and  bitter  fever  low; 

Welcome  back  our  lost,  from  living  graves  arisen, 
From  the  wild  despite  and  malice  of  the  foe. 

Another  of  her  war  poems  speaks  in  the  name 
of  the  sons  of  the  old  university.  When  it  was 
published  in  the  newspapers,  a  careless  type- 
setter made  some  errors  in  setting  it  up.  I  re- 
member how  troubled  she  was  when  the  line 

O  give  them  back,  thou  bloody  breast  of  Treason — 

was  printed  "beast"  of  Treason. 

We  give  a  single  verse  of  the  "Harvard  Student's 
Song": 

Remember  ye  how,  out  of  boyhood  leaping, 

Our  gallant  mates  stood  ready  for  the  fray, 
As  new-fledged  eaglets  rise,  with  sudden  sweeping, 

And  meet  unscared  the  dazzling  front  of  day? 
Our  classic  toil  became  inglorious  leisure, 

We  praised  the  calm  Horatian  ode  no  more, 
But  answered  back  with  song  the  martial  measure, 

That  held  its  throb  above  the  cannon's  roar. 

The  other  "Poems  of  the  War"  published  in 
Later  Lyrics  are  entitled  "Requital,"  "The  Ques- 
tion," "One  and  Many,"  "Hymn  for  a  Spring 

119 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Festival,"   "The  Jeweller's  Shop  in  War-time," 
and  "The  Battle  Eucharist." 

In  these  we  see  how  deeply  the  writer's  soul  was 
oppressed  by  the  sorrow  of  the  war  and  the  hor- 
rors of  the  battle-field.  We  see,  too,  how  it 
turned  ever  for  comfort  and  encouragement  to  the 
Cross  and  to  the  Lord  of  Hosts. 


X 

MRS.   HOWE'S  LOVE  OF  FREEDOM  AN  INHERITANCE 

Stories  of  Gen.  Francis  Marion — Mrs.  Howe's  kinship  with  the 
"Swamp  Fox" — The  episode  that  saved  " Marion's  Men" — The 
splendid  sword  that  rusted  in  its  scabbard — John  Ward,  one  of 
Oliver  Cromwell's  Ironsides — Samuel  Ward,  the  only  Colonial 
governor  who  refused  to  enforce  the  Stamp  Act — Roger  Williams, 
founder  of  Rhode  Island  and  champion  of  religious  liberty. 

WE  have  seen  that  my  mother's  love  of 
freedom  was  in  part  the  result  of  environ- 
ment. It  was  also  an  inheritance  from  men  who 
had  fought  for  civil  and  religious  liberty,  with  the 
sword  and  with  the  pen,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic.  Of  the  founder  of  the  Ward  family  in 
America,  we  know  that  he  fought  for  the  English 
Commonwealth  and  against  "  Charles  First,  tyrant 
of  England."  He  was  one  of  Oliver  Cromwell's 
Ironsides,  serving  as  an  officer  in  a  cavalry  regi- 
ment. After  the  republic  perished  and  the  Stuart 
line  in  the  person  of  Charles  II.  returned  to  the 

throne,  doughty  old  John  Ward  came  to  America, 

121 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

bringing  his  good  sword  with  him.  Whether  it 
was  ever  used  on  this  side  of  the  water,  the  record 
does  not  say,  but  it  was  preserved  in  the  family 
for  nearly  a  century. 

His  descendants  held  positions  of  trust  and  re- 
sponsibility under  the  State,  his  grandson  and 
great-grandson  being  each  in  his  turn  governor  of 
Rhode  Island.  The  latter,  Gov.  Samuel  Ward,  has 
the  distinction  of  being  the  only  Colonial  governor 
who  refused  to  take  the  oath  to  enforce  the  Stamp 
Act.  As  the  Chief  Executive  of  "little  Rhody" 
was  chosen  by  the  people,  his  views  were  naturally 
more  democratic  than  those  of  governors  appointed 
by  the  crown.  Still,  it  took  courage  to  refuse 
to  obey  the  royal  mandate.  He  early  foresaw  the 
separation  from  Great  Britain  and  wrote  to  his 
son  in  1766,  "These  Colonies  are  destined  to  an 
early  independence,  and  you  will  live  to  see  my 
words  verified."  He  was  a  member  of  the  Conti- 
nental Congresses  of  1774  and  1775.  The  latter 
resolved  itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole 
almost  every  day,  and  Governor  Ward  was  con- 
stantly called  to  the  chair  on  such  occasions,  until 
he  was  seized  with  fatal  illness,  March  13,  1776, 
dying  soon  afterward. 

At  this  time  vaccination  had  not  been  dis- 
122 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

covered,  the  only  preventive  of  the  terrible  scourge 
of  smallpox  being  inoculation.  Now  Governor 
Ward  could  not  spare  time  for  the  brief  illness 
which  this  process  involved.  In  addition  to  his 
duties  in  Congress  he  was  obliged,  owing  to  the 
physical  disability  of  his  colleague,  Gov.  Stephen 
Hopkins,  to  conduct  all  the  official  correspondence 
of  the  Rhode  Island  delegation,  with  the  Govern- 
ment and  citizens  of  the  colony.  His  services 
were  required  on  many  committees,  notably  on  the 
secret  committee  which  contracted  for  arms  and 
munitions  of  war.  Hence,  worn  down  by  over- 
work, he  fell 'an  easy  victim  to  smallpox.  He  died 
three  months  before  his  colleagues  signed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  As  he  early  saw 
the  necessity  of  separation  from  the  mother 
country,  he  would  certainly  have  affixed  his 
signature  to  it  had  he  lived.  His  descendants  may 
be  pardoned  for  thinking  that  he  made  a  great  mis- 
take in  not  taking  the  time  required  for  inocula- 
tion. 

Many  of  Governor  Ward's  letters  have  been  pre- 
served. These  show  his  ardent  patriotism  as  well 
as  the  devout  religious  spirit  of  the  men  of  1776. 
He  writes  to  his  brother:  "I  have  realized  with 

regard  to  myself  the  bullet,  the  bayonet,  and  the 
9  J23 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

halter;  and  compared  with  the  immense  object 
I  have  in  view  they  are  all  less  than  nothing. 
No  man  living,  perhaps,  is  more  fond  of  his  chil- 
dren than  I  am,  and  I  am  not  so  old  as  to  be  tired 
of  life;  and  yet,  as  far  as  I  can  now  judge,  the 
tenderest  connections  and  the  most  important 
private  concerns  are  very  minute  objects.  Heaven 
save  my  country!  I  was  going  to  say  is  my  first, 
my  last,  and  almost  my  only  prayer." 

Gov.  Samuel  Ward  was  a  Seventh-Day  Baptist. 
The  little  church  in  which  he  worshiped  at  New- 
port has  all  the  charm  of  the  best  architecture  of 
that  period.  It  now  forms  part  of  the  Historical 
Society's  rooms. 

His  son,  Lieut. -Col.  Samuel  Ward,  grandfather 
of  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  joined  the  Continental 
Army  when  the  Revolution  broke  out.  Governor 
Ward  writes  of  "the  almost  unparalleled  suffer- 
ings of  Samuel,"  and  these  were  indeed  severe. 
Of  the  ill-fated  expedition  to  Quebec,  Colonel 
Ward  writes:  "We  were  thirty  days  in  a  wilder- 
ness that  none  but  savages  ever  attempted  to  pass. 
We  marched  one  hundred  miles  upon  shore  with 
only  three  days'  provisions,  waded  over  three  rapid 
rivers,  marched  through  snow  and  ice  barefoot . . . 
moderately  speaking,  we  have  waded  one  hundred 

124 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

miles."  The  result  of  this  exposure  was  "the 
yellow  jaundice." 

The  Americans  were  overpowered  by  superior 
numbers,  Colonel  Ward  being  taken  prisoner  with 
many  others.  He  was  also  at  Valley  Forge  in  that 
terrible  winter  when  the  American  Army  endured 
such  great  privations. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Colonel  Ward  as- 
sisted in  raising  a  colored  regiment  in  the  spring 
of  1778.  He  commanded  this  in  the  engagement 
on  the  island  of  Rhode  Island,  near  the  spot  where 
his  granddaughter  and  her  husband  established 
their  summer  home  a  century  later.  From  the 
peaceful  windows  of  "Oak  Glen"  one  sees, in  the 
near  foreground,  the  earthworks  of  the  Revolution. 

In  spite  of  all  the  hardships  endured  during  the 
Revolutionary  War,  Colonel  Ward  lived  to  be 
nearly  seventy-six  years  of  age.  My  mother  well 
remembered  her  grandfather  with  his  courtly 
manner  and  mild,  but  very  observing,  blue  eyes. 
With  the  indulgence  characteristic  of  grandparents, 
he  permitted  the  Ward  brothers  to  play  cards  at  his 
house,  a  thing  they  were  forbidden  to  do  at  home. 

The  State  of  Rhode  Island  is  represented  in  the 
statue-gallery  of  the  national  Capitol  by  Roger 
Williams,  pioneer  of  religious  liberty  and  founder 

125 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

of  the  State,  and  by  Gen.  Nathaniel  Greene,  who 
rendered  such  important  service  during  the  Rev- 
olutionary War.  My  mother  was  related  to  both 
men,  being  a  direct  descendant  of  the  former. 

Whether  or  no  Massachusetts  was  justified  in 
driving  out  Roger  Williams,  we  will  not  attempt  to 
decide.  He  was  evidently  a  person  who  delighted 
in  controversy  in  a  day  when  religious  toleration 
was  almost  unknown. 

To  him  belongs  the  honor  of  being  the  first  to 
found  a  State  "upon  the  distinctive  principle  of 
complete  separation  of  Church  and  State."  Mary- 
land followed  not  long  after  the  example  set  by  the 
"State  of  Rhode  Island  and  Providence  Planta- 
tions." 

Not  in  Massachusetts  alone  did  people  object 
to  his  doctrines.  His  work,  The  Bloody  Tenent  of 
Persecution,  was  burned  in  England  by  the  com- 
mon hangman,  by  order  of  Parliament. 

George  Fox  Digged  Out  of  His  Burrowe  seems 
a  volume  of  formidable  proportions  to  the  modern 
reader.  With  Quaker  doctrines  Roger  Williams 
had  small  patience,  although  he  permitted  members 
of  the  persecuted  sect  to  live  in  the  Colony.  It 
seems  that  G.  Fox  did  not  avail  himself  of  an  offer 
of  disputation  on  fourteen  proposals.  His  oppo- 

126 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

nents  claimed  that  he  "slily  departed"  to  avoid  the 
debate.  It  went  on  just  the  same,  being  "managed 
three  days  at  Newport  and  one  day  at  Providence." 

This  volume,  George  Fox,  etc.1,  is  dedicated  to 
Charles  II.  by  "Your  Majestyes  most  loyal  and 
affectionate  Orator  at  the  Throne  of  Grace." 

One  can  guess  how  much  attention  the  Merrie 
Monarch  paid  to  the  fourteen  "proposalls"2  and 
the  elaboration  thereof. 

The  best  testimony  to  the  essential  gentleness 
and  goodness  of  this  eccentric  divine  is  the  be- 
havior toward  him  of  the  Indians.  During  King 
Philip's  war  they  marched  on  Providence  with  the 
intention  of  burning  it. 

"The  well-attested  tradition  is  that  Roger  Will- 
iams, now  an  old  man,  alone  and  unarmed,  save 
with  his  staff,  went  out  to  meet  the  band  of  ap- 
proaching Indians.  His  efforts  to  stay  their 
course  were  unavailing,  but  they  allowed  him  to  re- 
turn unmolested,  such  was  the  love  and  venera- 
tion entertained  for  him  by  these  savages." 

Of  my  mother's  ancestors  on  the  maternal  side, 
the  most  interesting  was  her  great-great-uncle, 
Gen.  Francis  Marion,  the  partisan  leader  of  the 

1  George  Fox  Digged  Out  of  His  Burrowe. 
2 "Proposalls " — I  here  quote  Roger  Williams'  spelling. 
127 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC' 

Revolution.  She  was  descended  from  his  sister 
Esther,  "The  Queen  Bee  of  the  Marion  Hive,"  the 
general  himself  having  no  children. 

Many  romantic  stories  are  told  of  him.  He  was 
present  at  a  drinking-party  during  the  siege  of 
Charleston  when  the  host,  determined  that  no  one 
should  leave  the  festivities  until  some  particularly 
fine  Madeira  had  been  disposed  of,  locked  the 
door  and  threw  the  key  out  of  the  window. 
Marion  had  no  notion  of  taking  part  in  any  ex- 
cesses, so  he  made  his  escape  by  jumping  out  of 
the  window.  A  lame  ankle  was  the  result,  and 
the  Huguenot  left  the  city,  all  officers  unfit  for 
duty  being  ordered  to  depart.  Marion  took 
refuge  now  with  one  friend,  now  with  another,  and 
again  he  was  obliged  to  hide  in  the  woods,  while  re- 
covering from  this  lameness.  The  accident  was 
a  most  fortunate  one,  however.  If  he  had  re- 
mained in  Charleston  he  would  have  been  obliged 
to  surrender  and  the  brigade  of  "Marion's  Men" 
might  never  have  existed. 

How  he  formed  it  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the  war 
in  the  South  is  a  matter  of  history.  How,  like 
so  many  will-o'-the-wisps,  they  led  the  British 
a  weary  dance  "thoro'  bush,  thoro'  brier,"  all 
through  the  woods  and  the  swamps  of  South 

128 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

Carolina,  is  a  tale  that  delights  the  heart  of  every 
school-boy. 

Well  knows  the  fair  and  friendly  moon 

The  men  that  Marion  leads, 
The  glitter  of  the  rifles, 

The  scamper  of  their  steeds; 
'Tis  life  to  guide  the  fiery  barb 

Across  the  moonlit  plain: 
'Tis  life  to  feel  the  night-wind 

That  lifts  the  tossing  mane. 
A  moment  in  the  British  camp, 

A  moment  and  away, 
Back  to  the  pathless  forest 

Before  the  peep  of  day.1 

The  best-known  story  tells  of  the  British  officer 
who  was  brought  blindfolded  into  Marion's  camp 
and  entertained  at  a  dinner  consisting  solely  of 
sweet  potatoes.  Small  wonder  that  he  made  up  his 
mind  the  Americans  could  not  be  conquered,  since 
they  were  able  to  subsist  on  such  scanty  rations! 

Reversing  the  text  of  Scripture,  General  Marion 
provided  his  men  with  swords  made  of  saws,  am- 
munition being  scanty.  He  was  as  well  known 
for  his  humanity  as  for  his  ingenuity.  It  is  said 
that  once,  wishing  to  draw  his  sword,  he  found  it 
rusted  into  the  scabbard,  so  little  had  it  been  used. 

When  my  mother,  as  occasionally  happened  in 

1  William  Cullen  Bryant's  "The  Song  of  Maripo's  Men." 
129 


"THE  BATTLE  HYMN  OF  THE  REPUBLIC" 

her  later  years,  would  quietly  slip  off  on  some  ex- 
pedition which  her  daughters  feared  was  too  much 
for  her  strength,  we  would  remember  her  kinship 
with  the  "Swamp  Fox." 

Of  her  parents,  it  should  be  said  that  both  were 
deeply  religious.  Her  mother,  Julia  Cutler  Ward, 
a  woman  of  very  lovely  character  and  intellectual 
tastes,  died  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-seven.  Her 
father,  Samuel  Ward,  one  of  the  "Merchant 
Princes  of  Wall  Street,"  was  well  known  for  his 
integrity,  liberality,  and  public  spirit.  He  was 
especially  interested  in  the  causes  of  temperance 
and  religion,  being  "  one  of  the  foremost  promoters 
of  church-building  in  the  then  distant  West."  He 
was  also  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New  York 
University,  and  owned  the  first  private  picture- 
gallery  in  New  York. 

Thus  we  see  that  my  mother,  like  so  many  of 
her  fellow-Americans,  came  from  a  long  line  of 
God-fearing  and  patriotic  men  and  women.  In 
the  words  of  the  "Battle  Hymn"  we  hear  not 
only  the  voice  of  the  Union  Army,'  but  an  echo 
of  all  the  aspiring  thoughts  and  noble  deeds  of  the 
builders  of  our  great  Republic. 

THE  END 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


